It’s funny that a documentary created in 2001 about an Internet start-up company can be called “an oldie but a goodie,” but I think this is the case with Startup.com. Startup.com is the story of how fledgling Internet company GovWorks.com went from an idea to start-up to bust during the .com bubble. Everything from choosing the company domain name to fighting for funding from VCs to dealing with their growth is shown in this behind the scenes film.
While it’s intriguing to watch the company’s progress, I also realize how lucky I am that I have found an industry and a niche where I am able to work somewhat alone (albeit with the assistance of freelancers), and I think I might have less stress as a result. Sure, I am typically stressing about something (just ask my wife), but at least I don’t have to worry about paying someone back or building more value for someone else on top of everything.
Having your company be injected with venture capital can be great, owning/presiding over a company with 50+ employees can be prestigious, and founding a company with a $xx million dollar valuation can be exhilarating, but at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth the stress. I think there is plenty of opportunity in our industry to build businesses of our own.
One thing that is still pretty amazing to me is that despite the time the start-up was born and the amount of their funding, they still settled on the name GovWorks.com, which is now a parked page.
I couldn’t find the video in full, but someone cut several parts of it on YouTube. The movie is a couple of hours, but I found it fascinating the first time I watched it several years ago, and I thought it was neat to watch again years later.
