As I watched the StartUp documentary, I was amazed at how a simple idea - govWorks.com - grew into something extraordinary in a short period of time. What was more extraordinary was how quickly govWorks.com failed. While the internet is something that is encrypted into our everyday lives, it's interesting to see just how a company, particularly a website, is produced.
I had mixed feelings of whether I agreed with the decisions Kaleil and Tom made. Nevertheless, I was rooting for them to overcome their adversities and achieve the successful company they had envisioned. But of course, happily ever afters happen mostly in fairy tales. I mean, I don't think Cinderella's fairy god mother would've had enough magic in her wand to turn things around for Tom and Kaleil. But enough about Disney fairy tales. With every success there is struggle. With the way the Dot-Com bubble turned out, it was obvious how govWorks.com would eventually end in tragedy. Okay, maybe tragedy is a word that over dramatizes the entire documentary. But that's exactly what the entire documentary was - drama. Drama between Tom and Kaleil, drama between their lawyers and even drama with their business partner, Chieg Cheung.
The most saddening, yet not surprising, aspect of the documentary is how the number of employees grew from 8 to over a hundred and back down to about 20 (I don't remember exact numbers). Again, as I said at the beginning of this blog, it's extraordinary to see how quickly the company fell apart. The idea of govWorks.com was something simple, yet, something different. With the amount technology has changed today, I wonder if govWorks.com would've been successful had they waited a few more years to create it. I guess we'll never know.
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