But for many others, the Internet Revolution (now known as the Internet Bubble) was something more than just going to work in shorts and sandals, drinking free cokes and playing video games. It was a revolt against the old-fashioned business practices of past generations, and shook the foundation -- at least for a couple of years -- of the new economy.

      In Startup.com, a fascinating documentary about the rise and fall of a Dot Com company, we get a little of both. They also happen to be best friends. There’s Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, the young, flashy, arrogant 20-something, able to strut unflinchingly into meetings with billion dollar Venture Capital firms to make his pitch, confident enough to walk up to the President of the United States and hand him a business card. And there’s also Tom Herman, the compassionate visionary and technical wunderkind, who wants to see his technology make a difference in the world.

      The company they’ve founded, govWorks.com, offers web services to government entities, allowing for example, NYC residents to pay their parking bills over the web. And thanks to co-filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, we get an all access pass into the personal lives of the founders (Noujaim was Tuzman's friend at Harvard and current roommate at the time of the shoot). We get a first-hand look inside board meetings, intra-office conflicts, Kaleil and Tom’s personal lives (and problems), and in one brilliantly chaotic scene, Kaleil and Tom stranded in a VC’s office with a term sheet for $17 million, an hour to make a decision on it, and no lawyer to look at the contract. Just another day in the life of an Internet startup.

      From an eight-person company with an idea, to a $60 million, 250-person machine, the sequence of events captured over a two-year period with nearly 400 hours worth of footage is a storyline even Hollywood couldn’t dream up. It is a tale of fame, fortune, deceit, betrayal, but at its heart, Startup.com is really about the rise and fall of a friendship, one that mirrors identically the euphoric enthusiasm and precipitous downfall of the Internet Bubble.

      There is a unique intimacy between the filmmakers and its stars, but the film is guided more towards Tuzman, govWorks.com’s charismatic CEO. He is passionate, but always a business man first, as a CEO should be. However -- and here’s where the problem of squeezing 400 hours of footage into an hour and a half becomes a problem – though he becomes the focus of the film, he is also the person we understand the least through it all. Partly to blame is the fact that everything just happens so fast, but much of it lies in the editing room. There are confusing cuts between funding trips to the east and west coast, as well as logical jumps between the rapid growth and financial struggles within the company. Many of the scenes make Tuzman’s motives just seem plain evil, and there is little build-up to the reasons behind the actions. You wonder how someone who can profess so easily the love for his friend Tom could turn on him so quickly, and so harshly. I suspect there is a story behind it that we will never quite know about.

      Startup.com is a lesson not about what Alan Greenspan labeled “irrational exuberance”, but rather the rise and fall of a unique period of time when people thought ideas would be enough to carry a business. It is about the overwhelming concept that a small group of people could actually set out to change the landscape, to alter the way we look at the world, the way we live in it. It’s also a gut-wrenching behind-the-scenes look at human interaction in its purest, harshest form. Though it is the vision that drives us, we now know that the rules do still apply, both in business, and in friendship. And now that the money’s run dry, is there really any doubt what’s more important?

Stephen Wong, 2001