The Rise and Fall of GovWorks.com

Steven Ishak

Being able to view a failing business from an outside perspective is something that is extremely rare and also extremely interesting. The movie Startup.com gives us, the viewers, that rare experience and allows us to draw our own conclusions of why exactly their business failed. In the same right, it also does a terrific job in displaying many of the very first important things it takes to get a business up and running. In the quest in making Govworks.com successful, you can’t help but notice how managerial skills, technology issues, and personal relationships all have a great influence in supporting the eventual demise of the business.

The entire movie seems to be based around the ideas and control of the lead entrepreneur, Kaleil Tuzman. Being the lead entrepreneur, Kaleil faces many hard decisions all while trying to keep the opportunity, his resources, and his team in balance.

Kaleil’s opportunity is a website which will help users facilitate the payment and use of certain government regulations and procedures, such as being able to pay for parking tickets on the internet. Kaleil seemed very determined to make his opportunity as focused as possible when talking to potential investors so it does not appear that he and his team are out of focus. He truly believes there is a lot of money to be made by creating this website and is willing to devote as much time and energy it takes to make this opportunity successful. In contrast, towards the end of the movie, the viewers saw that his opportunity was quickly becoming obsolete and could no longer survive. His resources and his team seemed to be the main reason to cause the eventual collapse of his business.

Kaleil’s resources at the beginning of the project were few and far between. We, the viewers, witnessed that he didn’t even have a chair at his desk and had to sit on a computer cardboard box. He began by only having 8 educated employees, a couple of computer systems, a relatively small office, a car, airplane tickets, and his most hated resource of all, time. Kaleil always seemed to be pressured by time. He wanted to get things done quickly because he knew how fast the internet and Dot Coms were growing. He wanted to be the first to market his opportunity, but at the same time be sure that he was getting the best investors and the best employees he could afford. On the opening day of the business, Kaleil greatly increased his resources. He now had over 200 employees, generated over $17 million from investors, and was now also generating income due to the operation of the business. However, as we all saw, those resources then began to decrease at an uncontrollable rate. Due to a lack of security there was a break-in of the office which led to a suspicion of corporate espionage. This lack of security implies that Kaleil and Tom didn’t have the proper software and technology to help protect against possible intruders. Also due to uncontrollable events such as a recession in the stock market, it limited investors to investing any more money in Kaleil’s ailing business.

Kaleil’s team seemed to be the most interesting aspect of the film. He seemed to have a love/hate relationship with his best friend and partner Tom. He loved the fact that Tom was always there for him and meant well, but gave the impression that he believed Tom was not a very good communicator. He felt some of the things Tom would say to investors were completely wrong and it made his company and his opportunity appear to be not focused. In addition to Tom, there were at least 2 other team members who we the viewer didn’t really get to see much of except for the very beginning when they were debating what the name of their company should be. Lastly, the most drama causing team member, Key, made for an interesting moment in the movie. Kaleil and Tom we forced to decide how much money to give Key in order to buy out his shares of the company because Key no longer wanted to be a member of their team. Key wanted nearly double the amount Kaleil and Tom were offering and thus forced Kaleil and Tom to have to dig into their own pockets to pay off their one time friend for his shares of the company. Kaleil and Tom took this to be a personal slap in the face and were devastated by Key’s apparent “backstabbing.” Also, towards the end of the film we see how Tom is asked to no longer work for the company because he was not the best person for the job in regards to the technology aspect of the company. Kaleil’s “Team” was now reduced to himself and those 2 other men which we were introduced to in the beginning of the film. With the firing of Tom, and all other resources quickly diminishing, it was easy to conclude that GovWorks.com would quickly fail.

To be on the outside and witness the rise and fall of GovWorks.com makes for an interesting hour and half. I seemed to find myself instinctively putting myself in place of Kaleil and thinking about what I would have done differently. First and foremost, Kaleil seems to be driven by the idea of making “Billions” of dollars as oppose to being driven by the idea itself. Having said that, I would have made sure never to lose focus on the core competences of my business. His passion is clearly there, but it’s there for the wrong reason. He also seems to be too immature in handling his business practices, and it seems like he allows his emotions to get the best of him.

However, having said all that, I also should acknowledge the genius of their idea of making a documentary of their journey of starting GovWorks.com. By developing this film they were able to create a number of interesting assets for themselves. First, they created another source of revenue which the movie would produce which they could use for the support of their business. Secondly, in the event that their business had become successful, they also created an advertisement for GovWorks.com. Lastly, if the business had failed, which it obviously did, they created credibility for themselves in which they could use this film to show all the work they’ve been through and thus create even more opportunities for themselves.