In this article, we have compiled a list of the 10 best movies about business and startups that you should learn from to start a business and run a successful business operation.
Before you is a selection of almost fantastic stories about the rise and fall of startups that have attracted the attention of not only the general public, but also filmmakers, which are a must-see for marketers, entrepreneurs, managers and other business representatives.
“The Social Network.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 7.895
Three Oscars, four Golden Globes and thousands of young people around the world who decided to create their own startup following the example of the main character of the movie – this is the result of the movie “The Social Network” by David Fincher. Until 2010, Mark Zuckerberg was just another young, albeit very successful, it-developer from Silicon Valley, after which he turned into a myth, just like his creation – the social network Facebook.
“Jobs: Empire of Seduction.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 6.532
The interest in the personality of Steve Jobs does not think of waning, including in the startup community. In fact, he was a perpetual startup, always striving to create something not just new, but revolutionary new. The movie covers Jobs’ life from 1971 to 2011. The most interesting is the early, “garage” period, when he and Steve Wozniak had just founded Apple. This part of his life is shown in the movie most vividly.
“August.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 5.635
Austin Cheek’s movie starring Josh Hartnett takes place just a month before the events of September 11. The heroes of the movie, brothers Tom and Josh Sterling, have their own dot-com startup that can barely stay afloat. Their story is an illustration of all the dotcoms, the “new economy” model, and the yuppie generation. Money was invested in advertising and marketing rather than in business development, loud statements were made and no less loud predictions were made about the growth of Internet companies’ shares, and as a result, the bubble burst, burying dozens of dotcoms.
“Startup.com.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 7.102
The slogan of the documentary “Startup.com” reflects its inner content in the best possible way: “The Rise and Sunset of the American Dream”. This is the story of two young entrepreneurs, Kaleil Tuzman and Tom Herman, told from the creation of their startup GovWorks.com in May 1999 to its bankruptcy in early 2000. Their site allowed direct communication with local authorities but, despite a good idea, went bust. Essentially, this movie is a documentary on how not to do an internet business. That’s what makes it interesting, failure stories can be much more useful than success stories.
“Uploading: The True History of the Internet.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 7.969
The mini-series Download: The True Story of the Internet tells the story of all the most important milestones in the history of the World Wide Web: the battle of the browsers, the success of search engines and their explosive growth, the dot-com crisis and the birth of Web 2.0. Each chapter of the history of the Internet is devoted to a separate series, which carefully analyzes this or that phenomenon, which is not surprising, since the mini-series was produced by Oxford Scientific Films. The Internet itself is presented as a kind of metastartup, existing through constant “renewal” – new ideas, new people, new crises, the collapse of some companies and the rise of others.
“Pirates of Silicon Valley.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 7.556
“If you can’t come up with a good idea, buy or steal it” – that’s the main “pirate” thought of Martin Burke’s movie. Two startup businessmen – Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, two different characters, two different approaches to doing business. In the movie the formation of two great IT-companies and the rivalry between the two most powerful technological entrepreneurs of the recent times are shown somewhere too romantic, somewhere too ironic, and somewhere very accurately.
“Electronic Dreams.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 5.976
Another documentary on “How Not to Do Business”, this time from Korean filmmaker Wonsook Chin. The film tells the story of the startup Kozmo.com, which offered to deliver small goods and parcels by bicycle, car or public transport in no more than an hour. At first, everyone thought the idea was working. In just one year, the company grew from 11 to 3,000 employees and its value reached several hundred million dollars. Amazon.com and Starbucks collaborated with Kozmo.com – seemingly a classic success story. But it’s not quite that simple.
“Ctrl+Alt+Compete.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 5.556
“What is a startup company?” “What is its mission and structure?” “Are startups really useful?” Answers to these and many other equally interesting and intriguing questions are given by the founders of five completely different American startups. Five companies, five entrepreneurs, five business models. The movie was made on Microsoft’s money and was intended to become a kind of “practical manual” for aspiring entrepreneurs.
“Revolutionary OS.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 7.268
Is it possible to create a company that can successfully challenge the dominance of Microsoft and Apple, but still stand on the principles of free software distribution? The movie Revolution OS answers this question in the affirmative. It tells the story of operating systems such as GNU and Linux, which proved that free software can be a good substitute for paid analogs and compete successfully with them.
“Code Rush.”
Movie rating on Kinopoisk: 6.876
The famous movie “Startup.com” was made according to the scheme tested in “Code Rush”. A team of documentary filmmakers led by David Vinton spent more than a year filming Netscape engineers working on a new web browser, which in the future would become known as Mozilla Firefox. Its development was supposed to save the company from collapse: but the real success story didn’t pan out. In 1999, Netscape was bought by AOL Inc. Against the background of the subsequent bankruptcies of many it-companies and startups, such an outcome could even be called a “happy ending”. But as history has shown, this deal was not the best decision for AOL Inc.
Enjoy the show!
