| Startup.com | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | |
| Produced by | D.A. Pennebaker |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Jehane Noujaim |
| Edited by |
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Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Artisan Entertainment |
Release dates |
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Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.8 million[1] |
Startup.com is a 2001 Americandocumentary film directed byJehane Noujaim andChris Hegedus.D. A. Pennebaker served as a producer on the film. It follows thedot-com start-up govWorks.com, which raised $60 million in funding fromHearst Interactive Media,KKR, the New York Investment Fund, andSapient.
The startup did not survive, but it became a reference for lessons learned, as it was the subject of a 2001 documentary that followsgovWorks foundersKaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman from 1999 to 2000, as theInternet bubble was bursting.
The film had its world premiere at theSundance Film Festival on January 21, 2001. It was released on May 11, 2001, byArtisan Entertainment.
The film was produced byD. A. Pennebaker, and was directed byChris Hegedus andJehane Noujaim. Noujaim had been Kaleil Tuzman'sHarvard classmate and began filming Tuzman as he quit his job atGoldman Sachs, to begin govWorks with his high school friend Tom Herman. Noujaim contacted Hegedus and Pennebaker for help in financing the project. The film was distributed byArtisan Entertainment (which was later acquired byLions Gate Entertainment).
The film was shot in digital video. The filmmakers shot for over two years, and were editing the more than 400 hours of video and film right up to theirSundance Film Festival premiere in early 2001. They re-edited the last few minutes of the film just prior to its May 2001 theatrical release.
Since the film's release, Herman and Tuzman worked together again at Recognition Group andJumpTV.[2][3]
Startup.com received positive reviews from film critics. OnRotten Tomatoes it holds a 93% approval rating, based on 94 reviews, with an average rating of 7.55/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Startup.com is more than just a look at the rise and fall of the new economy. At its center is a friendship being tested to the limit, and that's what makes it worth viewing."[4] OnMetacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5]
David Rooney ofVariety called it a "timely, topical film, which goes beyond its potentially dry diet of facts to incorporate the juicy human drama of Machiavellian manipulations, ambition, torn loyalties and crushing betrayal."[6]
