I just watched the documentary "Startup.com"....

It's about two guys who started up a dot-com company, govWorks.com - and the stratosphereic heights which they rose to (at one stage they had 200 employees) - and of course the big fall....

Their big idea was a web site where you could pay your parking tickets, and handle any other local government "red tape" you had to do...

If you had any interest in the dot-com boom, it's compulsive viewing. I didn't have anything directly to do with the dot-com boom (apart from starting our humble little site here, plus a couple other little projects), but I do have friends who were directly involved in the dot-com boom.

A couple friends of mine joined up a dot-com which started in Sydney, which then moved over to Silicon Valley - only to implode.... (I visited them and their office around mid-2000, when things were still looking good.) Another friend of mine actually started her own dot-com company, and raised over a million dollars before the crash came. (I visited her office in San Francisco at the same time - she had about 30 employees at that stage....)

One thing I noticed from the documentary was that there seemed to be less of a focus on profitability and more of a focus on whether their site was "good enough" and whether it looked impressive. I think the reason why that was the case was because in order to get more VC funding, you had to impress them with a good-looking web site...

Of course, NOW we know that how impressive your site looks is nowhere near as important as whether it can SELL. I know several sites that look pretty scrappy but which are GREAT at selling... Their "scrappy" look makes theem feel more personal, like you are dealing with a real person.

In the documentary, there was a LOT more emphasis on getting the VC funding (more and more of it - and then more and even more) in order to keep going, than there was in actually turning a profit. Wow, how times have changed!

If any of you see Startup.com available to buy or rent, get or rent yourself a copy - it's fascinating stuff. Learn from their successes and also from their mistakes! :)

- Dien Rice

P.S. govWorks.com is no more - it looks like it was eventually sold (under bankruptcy) to www.govONEsolutions.com - which IS around. It looks like the founders ended up getting nothing.... I've noticed that one of their competitors mentioned in the film, www.ezgov.com , is also still around.

I think another lesson from the documentary is the lesson about egos.... The dot-com boom was largely ego-driven, and I think big egos can make colossal mistakes. When you don't have TOO big of an ego driving you I think you tend to make much sounder business decisions....

Oh yes, it's a great flick. I have it on DVD and also recommend it.

Childhood friends Kaleil Tuzman and Tom Herman building an internet empire and how it crashed along with all the other dot coms.

Kaleil was even hanging out with the president (Clinton) and bragging on Bloomberg interviews how the company was worth $50 MILLION big ones however, they never made a profit.

Dien, I don't know if you know what these guys do now adays but they are friends once again and they actually started another business on their own helping troubled internet businesses get back on their feet. They funded the new business using nothing but their own credit cards.

Very interesting story. Go rent this one guys! It's all real and all caught on tape.

Alex


Lawsuit And Asset Protection Kit

Hi Alex,

> Dien, I don't know if you know what these
> guys do now adays but they are friends once
> again and they actually started another
> business on their own helping troubled
> internet businesses get back on their feet.
> They funded the new business using nothing
> but their own credit cards.

I looked more into this out of curiosity - what they are up to now....

And I found this web page. It seems to be a small site maintained by Tom Herman...

http://www.publicdatasystems.com/pds/index.htm

It looks like Kaleil and Tom started up a new company, like you said - Recognition Group. Both Kaleil and Tom seem to be there - click on "Team" - and you 'll see "Kaleil D. Isaza Tuzman" under "Partners" and "Thomas J Herman" under "Affiliates". Tom also seems to be with Interlocken, which was an organization apparently started by his Dad.

If you want Tom Herman's point of view on "lessons learned" from his and Keleil's experience with govWorks.com , read this transcript of a group-discussion with Tom Herman from the Washington Post.

Also click on the "Lessons Learned" link on http://www.publicdatasystems.com/pds/index.htm - however it's a PDF file so you need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read it.

All in all - fascinating stuff. :)

- Dien

In the movie "About A Boy", Hugh Grant plays a young "retired" playboy who has never worked. His father wrote a famous song and Grant's character lives off the substancial royalties.

His life consists of doing virtually nothing but watching endless TV, shopping and chasing women. When asked about "what he does", he responds with the truth of "NOTHING."

When asked what he does with his day, his response was something to the effect of dividing it up into half hour units. 30 minute units would be allocated to certain activites such as 2 units for an hour TV program. 3 units for grocery shopping and 1, 2, 3 or 4 units allocated for this, that and the other, etc.

That idea immediatetly struck a chord with me, since I know that I can squander time doing nothing productive and am adopting that concept to improve my effectiveness.

It's so easy to waste time if there's no structure of time to follow. This way, time can be used as "currency" to be literally spent as I see fit. Even doing nothing can be productive in terms of regrouping when 1 or 2 units are "spent".

2 Units at the gym, 2 or 3 units reading, 4 units for a project etc. A unit can be whatever designation you give it (15 minutes to an hour) but 30 minutes each works well for me.

Time is really all we have and spending it wisely results in a sense of fulfillment.

The common term "Killing Time" means just that, so why not designate units that are not wasted or squandered. Sooner or later our time will run out and that's a fact - Jack!

Lawrence

PS - The movie had other interesting lessons throughout about the real value of things in life.

PPS - This post took me 1/3 of a unit.

Hi Lawrence,

That's a great idea!

After reading your post, I've started using that idea of half-hour time units too, in order to help plan my day. It seems to be working very well so far!

It's a lot easier (for some reason) to think that a task will take "1 time unit" than to think that it will take "30 minutes"... I guess it just makes the whole planning process more streamlinesd and easier, and therefore much more efficient.

Anyway, I'm enjoying it and I think it's a great innovation!

Who'd-a-thunk you could learn something like that from a movie about a hedonistic playboy ? :)

- Dien

> In the movie "About A Boy", Hugh
> Grant plays a young "retired"
> playboy who has never worked. His father
> wrote a famous song and Grant's character
> lives off the substancial royalties.

> His life consists of doing virtually nothing
> but watching endless TV, shopping and
> chasing women. When asked about "what
> he does", he responds with the truth of
> "NOTHING."

> When asked what he does with his day, his
> response was something to the effect of
> dividing it up into half hour units. 30
> minute units would be allocated to certain
> activites such as 2 units for an hour TV
> program. 3 units for grocery shopping and 1,
> 2, 3 or 4 units allocated for this, that and
> the other, etc.

> That idea immediatetly struck a chord with
> me, since I know that I can squander time
> doing nothing productive and am adopting
> that concept to improve my effectiveness.

> It's so easy to waste time if there's no
> structure of time to follow. This way, time
> can be used as "currency" to be
> literally spent as I see fit. Even doing
> nothing can be productive in terms of
> regrouping when 1 or 2 units are
> "spent".

> 2 Units at the gym, 2 or 3 units reading, 4
> units for a project etc. A unit can be
> whatever designation you give it (15 minutes
> to an hour) but 30 minutes each works well
> for me.

> Time is really all we have and spending it
> wisely results in a sense of fulfillment.

> The common term "Killing Time"
> means just that, so why not designate units
> that are not wasted or squandered. Sooner or
> later our time will run out and that's a
> fact - Jack!

> Lawrence

> PS - The movie had other interesting lessons
> throughout about the real value of things in
> life.

> PPS - This post took me 1/3 of a unit.

Dien,

Here's a suggestion that I found even more helpful in using this concept.

Have some activities that can be accomplished with small bits of time. These can include reading, forms of excercise and personal projects.

When you allocate say 2 units (one hour) for a given activity and accomplish it in 40 minutes instead of the hour (2 units) then you have "change" back from your expenditure of units.

Change is given in the form of minutes that can be applied or "spent" on other things. That 20 minutes of change can be used for any of the above mentioned activities that you want to make progress with.

So, in essence, you do not let your "change" evaporate, since you apply it to something else that needs to be done as well.

Lawrence

> Hi Lawrence,

> That's a great idea!

> After reading your post, I've started using
> that idea of half-hour time units too, in
> order to help plan my day. It seems to be
> working very well so far!

> It's a lot easier (for some reason) to think
> that a task will take "1 time
> unit" than to think that it will take
> "30 minutes"... I guess it just
> makes the whole planning process more
> streamlinesd and easier, and therefore much
> more efficient.

> Anyway, I'm enjoying it and I think it's a
> great innovation!

> Who'd-a-thunk you could learn something like
> that from a movie about a hedonistic playboy
> ? :)

> - Dien

If you liked "startup.com", be sure to check out "edreams" as well... The story of kozmo.com and it's business model of "delivery in an hour"...

I've been involved in 2 venture capital funded startups, and I can tell you, it's an experience that truly shows you both the best (and to a lesser extent) the worst of the human condition.

It was a lifechanging experience.

Our first company was a success, we sold it for $11,000,000 on May 1st of 1998.

The second was a minor failure, after raising $2.5MM, the market turned, and we dropped the concept and returned the money.

The first company, ICentral, has become something of a "internet" icon, as we were mentioned BY NAME, in the fabulous fiction book on the Silicon Valley experience, "The Nudist on the Late Shift" by Po Bronson.

Here's an excerpt from the book that ran in "Wired":

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.07/pilgrims_pr.html

You've GOT to read it, it's hilarious!

> It's about two guys who started up a dot-com
> company, govWorks.com - and the
> stratosphereic heights which they rose to
> (at one stage they had 200 employees) - and
> of course the big fall....

> Their big idea was a web site where you
> could pay your parking tickets, and handle
> any other local government "red
> tape" you had to do...

> If you had any interest in the dot-com boom,
> it's compulsive viewing. I didn't have
> anything directly to do with the dot-com
> boom (apart from starting our humble little
> site here, plus a couple other little
> projects), but I do have friends who were
> directly involved in the dot-com boom.

> A couple friends of mine joined up a dot-com
> which started in Sydney, which then moved
> over to Silicon Valley - only to implode....
> (I visited them and their office around
> mid-2000, when things were still looking
> good.) Another friend of mine actually
> started her own dot-com company, and raised
> over a million dollars before the crash
> came. (I visited her office in San Francisco
> at the same time - she had about 30
> employees at that stage....)

> One thing I noticed from the documentary was
> that there seemed to be less of a focus on
> profitability and more of a focus on whether
> their site was "good enough" and
> whether it looked impressive. I think the
> reason why that was the case was because in
> order to get more VC funding, you had to
> impress them with a good-looking web site...

> Of course, NOW we know that how impressive
> your site looks is nowhere near as important
> as whether it can SELL. I know several sites
> that look pretty scrappy but which are GREAT
> at selling... Their "scrappy" look
> makes theem feel more personal, like you are
> dealing with a real person.

> In the documentary, there was a LOT more
> emphasis on getting the VC funding (more and
> more of it - and then more and even more) in
> order to keep going, than there was in
> actually turning a profit. Wow, how times
> have changed!

> If any of you see Startup.com available to
> buy or rent, get or rent yourself a copy -
> it's fascinating stuff. Learn from their
> successes and also from their mistakes! :)

> - Dien Rice

> P.S. govWorks.com is no more - it looks like
> it was eventually sold (under bankruptcy) to
> www.govONEsolutions.com - which IS
> around. It looks like the founders ended up
> getting nothing.... I've noticed that one of
> their competitors mentioned in the film,
> www.ezgov.com , is also still around.

> I think another lesson from the documentary
> is the lesson about egos.... The dot-com
> boom was largely ego-driven, and I think big
> egos can make colossal mistakes. When you
> don't have TOO big of an ego driving you I
> think you tend to make much sounder business
> decisions....




Here's what I do for a living...

Hi Kirt,

Thanks for sharing your experiences.... It was certaintly the "opportunity of a lifetime" and you're lucky you were able to get in early enough. Those that didn't unfortunately got clobbered....

By the way, thanks also for recommending "e-Dreams". I hadn't heard of that documentary. Here's a link to info about it on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). It looks like another great one to watch!

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be out on DVD/video yet, so I hope they release it soon. Otherwise I'll have to watch out for a screening somewhere, or maybe it will get on cable somehow.... Anyway, I'll be on the lookout for it!

:)

- Dien