Startup.com
Documentary. USA, 2001. Directed by Jehane Noujaim and Chris Hegedus. Produced by D.A. Pennebaker and Frazer Pennebaker.
In English, 103 minutes. Artisan Entertainment.

Set in the dot-com version of the American dream and colored with themes like friendship, money and power, Startup.com has all the components of a timely drama. This fascinating documentary chronicles the launch and development of govWorks.com, an Internet-based company aimed at guiding people through the meanders of government matters. Startup.com provides an amazing look inside the nitty-gritty and the hardships of such an enterprise, and, on a more personal level, at the toll it can take on a friendship.

The documentary's main characters, Tom and Kaleil, are old high school friends who seem to have grown up dreaming of the day they would be in charge. The high-strung, fast-talker CEO, Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, seems ready to do anything and everything for the good of the business. The quiet Tom Herman, a single parent and a stickler for precision, is in charge of the technical side of the operations. Armed only with a concept and a business plan, the pair set their company in motion, Kaleil at the helm and Tom as the anchor. Although the basic concept of govWorks.com appears to be socially oriented, the concerns of the dot-com's leaders are really focused on untapped market areas and profit. In their struggle to get to the top, the two cope with technical difficulties, unexpected sabotage and copying competitors. Ultimately however, the greatest, unforeseen hurdle on their path to success turns out to be their friendship, which doesn't stand a chance when it gets in the way of their ambition.

Startup.com is not your ordinary documentary. For over a year, directors Jehane Noujaim and Chris Hegedus follow the highs and lows of Tom and Kaleil's plunge into venture capitalism. Through power talks and cheer meetings, elevator discussions and gym sessions, the filmmakers offer a dynamic insider's view of million-dollar deals made on the basis of a concept. The dramatic course of events gives a movie-like feel to the documentary, as do the montage sequences and the use of music. Kaleil's search for investors is condensed into a series of short images, and shots of newspaper headlines and magazine covers illustrate govWorks' success. Club music lyrics like "You have a passion" or Lauryn Hill's hip-hop "Forgive them Father" playfully echo these events and flashes of up-beat music accentuate the topicality of the theme. The use of parallel montage at the end emphasizes the fact that for the first time, Tom and Kaleil are going their separate ways.

Startup.com offers a captivating insight into the makings of dot-com's and the cutthroat business world, but more interestingly, it shows a slice of life of two determined, power-hungry young adults. Although the documentary focuses on govWorks and examines all the stages of the company's development, Startup.com is really about Tom and Kaleil, their relationship and their drive, and how this high-pressure environment affects their values. The insider's access provided by Kaleil's roommate Noujaim gives us a rare glimpse at the subjects' intimacy and heightens the dramatic development of the story. But the film's intimate look at these two friends never becomes voyeuristic. Following the cinema verité style, new-comer Noujaim and veteran Hegedus remain observers and avoid using rhetorical devices to communicate their own opinion on the subject. Nevertheless, in the end, Kaleil and Tom come out looking like insatiate children playing adult games. The moral of this amazing high-end financial fable seems to be that friendship should be more important than power and greed.

© Briana Berg, 2001