Rating (1 to 10) : 7
Summary: This documentary reinforces that adage that friendship and business do not mix!
Chris Hejedus and Jehane Noujaim, the two co-directors of this movie, made this documentary by following and filming two co-founders of an Internet startup company called govWorks.com. The two co-founders, Tom Herman and Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, were lifelong friends who came up with an idea to create a portal where people could interact with their state and municipal governments for various purposes, from making appointments to paying parking tickets to submitting blueprints for buildings. This was in the midst of the Internet bubble, when any business proposal that was plausible was deemed worthy of investment.
We follow Tuzman and Herman as they form their company, come up with a business plan, and visit venture capitalists to get funding to start their company – this part has been told before in periodicals like Forbes and eCompany. But then as the movie progresses, you see that to be successful in running a company, one sacrifices things in one’s life in striving to be a success; this is where the movie really opens people’s eyes. Herman has a little daughter whom he cannot spend the time with because govWorks is taking up more and more of his time while Tuzman’s relationship with his girlfriend deteriorates because he is just too busy to even call her regularly. The last act of the movie (if this was a fictional movie, it would be the pivotal climax) is when Herman and Tuzmans’ personal relationship clashes with their business relationship…and their friendship loses.
Ironically, the most profound comment made in this movie is made not by either of the co-founders but by Tom Herman’s mom when she complains about this “New World”, that is, this “New Economy,” that was so lauded, doesn’t leave room for relationships between people. In a sanguine way, she reminds us what is most important to us and that it’s not market capitalization or the bottom line.
I don’t think Hejedus and Noujaim intended to make this documentary a wake-up call to the Internet generation yet in a subtle way, it has become a Great Gatsby of the “New Economy.” It is very well worth watching and I wish more CEOs and venture capitalists would watch this film to refresh themselves on what is most important in this life, even in the high-tech business environment.
Mrs. Herman: “The values that you grew up with…were…that people came before things…and that…that that intensive energy that goes into anybody’s personal life and professional life has to do be with caring for people and how they are and how they feel; and that didn’t seem to be part of this New World.”
Mrs. Herman (commenting on the detrimental effect of Tom’s work on him): “But all I’m saying is I’m not sorry that that part of your life is over because I don’t think that’s a healthy way of life and I…I didn’t like what it did to you.”