‘Startup.com’ is a 2001 documentary film that features Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman. The film documents the rise and fall of GovWorks, an e-commerce website founded by the above mentioned characters. Kaleil and Tom created the website GovWorks just when the internet phenomenon had begun to pick up speed around the globe. The purpose of their creation was to allow the government to carry out business transactions such as filing building permits and payment of parking tickets with its constituents. The business idea aimed at making it easier for constituents to avoid the hassles of interacting with their governments and states through the creation of an interaction platform via web. This platform would help the constituents to renew their drivers’ licenses’, pay parking tickets and taxes by avoiding the struggles of doing it manually and over the counter. Although the idea was superb, everything did not go to plan. The business got to experience a meteoric rise and quite so too its speedy downfall. This paper will aim at dissecting and understanding the idea behind the entrepreneurship of Tom and Kaleil. The paper will analyze the movie and highlight the successes and failures of their business. The paper will project the successes and failures of start-up.com by basing on the business’s financing, marketing, operations, opportunity, and its organizational structure (Noujaim & Hegedus).
GovWorks based its beginning on the business opportunity of the booming dot com era. During the years close to the last millennium, the dot com companies appeared invincible. It is through this opportunity that Kaleil and Tom so the chance to start their business. The internet provided a field for upcoming business entrepreneurs and computer programmers at the time. The internet also got perceived as the frontier for technology based industry. The internet provided fertile ground for e-commerce. Kaleil’s and Tom’s idea provided a chance for the average constituents, to avoid directly dealing with the municipal governments by over passing them. The average American would get to conduct their dealings online via the Startup.com website. The idea was brilliant considering the boom in the dot com era at the time. The documentary starts to get filmed in the spring of 1999. govWorks as the website later got known, was simply an idea that had the ability to tap a multi billion dollar market. This got to be the second opportunity for Tom and Kaleil. There was an availability of market. Their idea targeted millions of average Americans who hassled to pay their taxes and parking tickets daily to municipal governments. With their new website which promised to reduce the hassles this population faced, an unprecedented market awaited them (Noujaim & Hegedus).
The movie focuses on two main founders, who formed the initial team for govWorks. The founders got to be Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman. Earlier, the business possessed an energetic and excitement filled culture. This served to stimulate people to want to join the team at govWorks. The movie showcases a growth in the number of employees from an initial figure of thirty to two hundred employees. The two were childhood friends who had now grown and ready to indulge in the business world. They had limited expertise in managing employees within an organization. Kaleil had quit his job at Goldmann Sacchs to pursue the opportunity availed by the booming internet era. Kaleil and Tuzman had different personalities. Kaleil is all about business, foul-mouthed and brash while Tom was quite his opposite. The two clashing personalities would prove to be a stabbing force that lets the business down. Their varying differences get played when choosing a name for their business as they disagree on the company name at first. Kaleil wants the website to get named as untocaesar.com since he is the CEO. He later settles for govWorks after peace talks with his partner. It is always difficult for a business to get run by two friends as there will always arise differences. This partnership got doomed for failure due to the contrasts that existed between the team partners. Part of the reason for the failure of govWorks business was the lack of the partners to forge an alliance early on as the business was still thriving. When the business gets to incur mishaps, the lack of a clear team alliance makes it easy for the business to go down. The team at govWorks experienced management conflicts and disagreements and this further stemmed the demise of the company (Noujaim & Hegedus).
govWorks obtained most of its initial financing from venture capitalists. At first this proved to be a shrewd move and contributed to the successful start of the business. Venture capital necessitated for the business to speedily rollout to heights of success. This later proved to be a stumbling block and contributor to the business’s downfall. As depicted in the movie, Kaleil spent large hours in search for venture capitalists. This meant that his presence at the firm headquarters got reduced. This endangered the management of staff and external vendors ultimately leading to the firm’s downfall. As the firm also garnered more venture capital, so did venture capitalist increase their roles in the company. This contributed to a lack of management control. Venture capitalists exerted their presence and pressured the company’s management. The venture capitalists grew to hold positions on the firm’s board, and this further constrained the influence of Kaleil as a CEO (Noujaim & Hegedus).
The organizational structure of govWorks was complex. There was no clear definition of roles and positions as depicted from the start of the movie. In the movie, Kaleil and Tom get shown as the initial founders of the business. Alongside them was a team of management and governance. The business also consisted of business advisors who got grouped further into four different groups. Later, when the company begins expanding, venture capitalists gain entry into the company’s board. They get to hold positions that allow them to exert pressure and secure advice to the firm. The business also associates itself with other affiliate companies that included both for profit and non profit companies. This organization structure diluted the power and control required at the firm. As the company quickly expanded, the internal and external management of the firm’s resources got difficult. This organization structure eventually gave way to a power struggle as there lacked clearly defined positions and roles within the firm. The management and direction of staff got to be a challenge. This contributed to the failure of the business (Noujaim & Hegedus).
govWorks approach to marketing was all encompassing. Kaleil wanted to reach out to the market as fast as possible. The company speedily gained prominence through television advertisements and praise from different quarters as a bright idea. The company borrowed venture capital to help it to market itself to a wider market immediately. For a company that was starting out, it was advisable that the firm targets a smaller market in order to remain successful. The rapid growth of govWorks proved to become its undoing as its management quickly spiraled (Noujaim & Hegedus).
The business operations of govWorks offered through their website included govPay, govPages, govJobs, govGive and govAction. Some of these features never got to function correctly. This made it easy for competing firms to beat govWorks at their trade. As documented in the film, a rival firm got to rollout a fully functional website offering similar services. This allowed them to get hold of a larger market that govWorks thought they would capture. Kaleil and his partners failed to convince prospective clients on how their business operations would benefit them. The failure in functionality of their website further limited their ability to capture the market. This led to govWorks business demise (Noujaim & Hegedus).
Conclusion
In the starup.com film, Kaleil and Tom play themselves as they begin to form a business based on the booming dot com era. The movie shows their meteoric success and downfall as they try to cut it through the e-commerce industry. From the film, it is clear to picture their lack of adequate planning and mismanagement as the two greatest contributors to their business downfall. Startup.Com depicts a common occurrence during the internet era. The era provided a true ground for both meteoric gains and falls. It provided ground for both success and failure. The movie provides the viewer with a glimpse on the expertise, complexity and speed required to survive in the internet era.
Works Cited
Startup.com. Dirs. Jehane Noujaim and Chris Hegedus. Perf. Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom
Herman. 2001.
