Friends since high school, 20-somethings Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman have an idea: a Web site for people to conduct business with municipal governments. This documentary tracks the rise and fall of govWorks.com from May of 1999 to December of 2000, and the trials the business brings to the relationship of these best friends. Kaleil raises the money, Tom's the technical chief. A third partner wants a buy out; girlfriends come and go; Tom's daughter needs attention. And always the need for cash and for improving the site. Venture capital comes in by the millions. Kaleil is on C-SPAN, CNN, and magazine covers. Will the business or the friendship crash first?
Direction
Unprecedented access to raw boardroom meltdowns and private betrayals.
Editing
Chaos timeline that mirrors the company's own implosion.
Director
Jehane Noujaim
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kaleil later became a tech executive and was actually arrested in 2016 for accounting fraud—life imitating art imitating life.
This premiered at Sundance in January 2001, literally weeks before the dot-com bubble fully burst—audiences watched their own future collapse.
US
