StartUp.com "What Went Wrong?"

Kevin Fisher

Technology Readiness:

For govworks.com it is my opinion that the company did not have the technological ability to go live as soon as they did. I feel it was evident in the filming of the documentary you can witness the evolution of the firm. When first going live one witnesses the capacity of the company by looking carefully in the background. For what they were trying to accomplish the man power and coding expertise that was needed was extreme and the company had no where close to what they needed in order to accomplish their goal. I agree with Gina that Tom should have not been put as the head of the technology department and someone with a great deal more expertise with technology should have been hired. I think the readiness of the company was seen the most in the part in which the company was broken into and stuff was stolen from the company. For one thing when running a company that deals with personal information in car tickets and sensitive material such as credit card numbers and addresses security is a huge priority. Then when coming to realize what was stolen and trying to observe if any information was compromised the company during filming was only able to find out about, about being the key word what time the break in happened.

Project Management / Business Strategy:

Management throughout any project is very important to running a successful business and I think goes hand and hand with Business Strategy. Management in govworks.com consisted at first of Kaleil and Tom. These two dreamed up and started the site. Throughout the film their management styles sometimes disagreed. In these cases Kaleil’s more aggressive and somewhat abrasive style usually won out and ultimately led to the termination of Tom. As the company brought in more employees the management was responsible for keeping track of these people and at sometimes in the film one witnesses that there was not a great deal of communication going on in the company outside the meetings and retreats. In running a internet based and customer relation strategy it is very important keep an eye on a great deal of different aspects. Management must keep track of technological advances and many other aspects and take advantages that will help the firm. I feel that Kaleil and Tom did not do this and in turn this led to the downfall of company.

Software Testing:

In terms of software testing I do not think that govworks.com did enough testing. They were too worried about going live as soon as possible and this was evident in what happened just before the launch. They had the money and I feel if they took more time and tested many different software vendors along with a number of different ways in which they could have accomplished their goal they could have found a better way in which to perform what they set out to do. Especially in the software field are so many vendors all with good programs. All govworks.com had to do was test a number of different vendors and I feel they could have found a very good company to perform their goal. They definitely needed to implement and test and security package due to the fact that they were broken into and that break in could have compromised a great deal of sensitive customer data.

Professional versus Personal Relationships:

This was probably the most profound thing seen in the film. Tom and Kaleil were best friends growing up and dreamed and started the company. As the filmed progressed the friendship of Tom and Kaleil was eventually broken and it goes to show that friendship and business relationships conflict that one should be very careful in attempting to work with friends. In the film Kaleil got killed when it came to his relationships. He lost his best friend and his girlfriend. The girlfriend however was crazy and you could see from the beginning that that was probably not going to the last but the Tom and Kaleil relationship was almost harsh to watch. Kaleil’s passion towards the project was amazing but in any venture is necessary to also have a life outside of the company. If one does nothing other than work eventually you will go crazy no matter how much you enjoy what you are doing. Kaleil did not so this and it was not until the company went completely under that we realized what had happened.

Leadership:

This was probably the thing that the company did best. Kaleil was the obvious leader and throughout the film showed his leadership style in a very obvious way. In the film you see the meetings and retreats that the company holds to bring the team together. In all the meetings it is Kaleil and his enthusiasm that brings all the people in the company to share in his passion. Kaleil is truly dedicated to his project and like a good captain goes down with his ship. As the company falls further and further into debt and eventually dies Kaleil attempts to stay positive and up beat but it is too late.