Yesterday we finished watching the documentary Startup.com which follows the daily lives of Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman, co-founders of the website govWorks.com that was launched during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990's and early 2000's. Unfortunately, the company failed due to the bubble bursting and the company was forced to declare bankruptcy.
What really stood out to me from the film was the relationship between Tuzman and Herman and I believe that this was one of the biggest factors that contributed to the failure of the govWorks.com. It was obvious that both them wanted the company to succeed but Tuzman was willing to give up his friendship with Herman to achieve this goal. Towards the end of the film when Tuzman and Herman had their falling out, Tuzman mentioned how he has been friends with Herman since they were 15 years old yet Tuzman was worried so much about Herman getting too much money in a severance package that he was willing to cut off ties with him in order to save some money for the company. Aside from this example, there were several other examples of them both fighting over things that ended up not being important in the long run for the company rather than trying to do what was important: trying to keep the company from tanking. Now I'm not trying to say that if Tuzman and Herman got along that govWorks.com would have lasted through the dot-com bubble or that it would have been profitable, but I do believe it was a major factor in the failure of govWorks.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment