I Blame Tom.

Ryan Cunningham

Startup.com’s relationship-focused perspective brought to light many of the interpersonal hardships faced by young professionals while developing their own unique idea. The idea is driven by its own potential and, more so, Kaleil’s decisive, charismatic leadership. The film surfaced the importance of soft skills and how they intertwine with technology to create a business out of an opportunity--and how to squeeze the life out of a business.

You hear it all too much from executives, “Our business is only as good as our people,” but do they really mean it? In Startup.com’s case, they do and they don’t. Tom, the self-proclaimed “Co-CEO” of GovWorks.com, is caught it the crosshairs when his communication and technology skills begin to lag behind that of the competition. While he was the co-creator of the business and a parent of the idea behind GovWorks.com, no amount of loyalty can stop a business from making decisions critical to survival. Although he was deemed expendable at the end of the film, Tom was a perfect example of a hard-working MIS professional. He was fully dedicated to his business and employees, and committed a fervent amount of effort into team development. He saw that with his new company he would have to assemble these would-be strangers into a cohesive team of professionals, but ultimately did not have the technological skills to out perform the competition.

The rise of GovWorks.com came with a scary amount of time and effort from Tom and Kaleil. Everyday was a full work day involving travel, business meetings, hotels, continental breakfasts, and zero sleep. It was as if they were both entry-level investment bankers, entering the black hole of dreadful hours required to . Despite these conditions, Kaleil and Tom treaded forward, disheveled as ever, to the venture capitalists and other investors in hopes of their idea coming to fruition. It was clear from the get-go that our heroes were not in harmony in that they snapped back and forth at each other, sent mixed messages to VC’s, and were somewhat directionless in their endeavors. They both knew they needed the money. They knew they needed employees. They knew what anyone would.

As time moved forward, GovWorks.com was prematurely launched in a competitive rush to be first in production. What they failed to realize was that being first in a business with no identifiable barriers to entry does not carry much meaning. They’re site apparently functioned, but every site out there can function. What keeps customers coming back to any particular website is ease-of-use and look-and-feel just as much as that basic functionality. GovWorks.com was missing that core technology competency, resulting in mediocre revenues and inexperienced leadership. It felt like Kaleil was driven to succeed but had a sense of looming defeat that consistently equaled his determination. That seemingly inevitable defeat was paralleled by the gradual disconnect between he and Tom during the latter half of the film. The altercations between Kaleil and Tom at the end were more than symbolic representations of the downfall of the business; they were literal interpretations of the failure of their collective idea.