Hacker Cinema
E-Dreams
2001 · Film · documentary · 93 min
Directed by Wonsuk Chin
They were handed $280 million dollars at age 28. They were on top of the world with a revolutionary idea to change our daily lives. And then it all came crashing down! This is the unbelievable story following the ups and downs of Joseph Park and Yong Kang, the founders of Kozmo.com. It's about the madness of chasing wealth, the lure of excess and the struggle for the American Dream
11 positive1 mixed10 neutralfrom 22 commenters
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26 comments on Hacker News
There's also "E-Dreams" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/
I don't have that one but I do have the 8-episode "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley" from 2012.
Also "Startup.com" from 2001
And "e-Dreams" from 2001
I highly recommend the documentary "Riot On!". Great documentary, great cinema, and great entertainment. "E-Dreams" and "Startup.com" are also very good. All of them on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0lrIi0ce5E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j847rYNo2G0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fd8pdniJZk
I recommend the documentary ‘e - Dreams’ about the company.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/
Amazon was an early investor, and they now offer same day delivery in the metro areas Kozmo serviced.
Netflix allowed for returning DVDs via pre-paid mailers, instead of dropping them off at Kozmo dropboxes at random local businesses.
They also worked with some local eateries to deliver food.
I had once ordered a dozen bagels, a Pokemon DVD, and I think a magazine in a single order.
I loved the concept and the company. According to the documentary, they were on the path to profitability, but threatened the existing status quo of then incumbent providers.
Is there more detail to the story of your startup we can read about?
I like movies like startup.com and e-dreams.
e-dreams is a documentary about Kozmo during the dotcom boom. Pretty good assessment of not only that company but the mentality of that bubble.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Dreams
The documentary e-Dreams covers the demise of Kozmo. Highly recommended.
I think it was worse in the late 90s early 00s. There is this documentary called 'e-dreams' that came out in 2001. It documents a delivery startup that didn't charge anything to deliver products to customers.
They had virtually no business model (and lost money on every order) and got millions in startup capital. The whole company imploded within a year, but some of the interviews with the executives of the company are pretty telling: they never intended on making a profit. The intent was to either get bought out by a larger company or get an IPO and bank the proceeds.
E-dreams is a really good documentary for anyone interested in seeing a small sliver out of the early days of the first .com boom/bust.
I watch it once-a-year to remind me of the craziness.
E-dreams. about kozmo.com: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/
There is a documentary on the rise and fall of the original Kozmo called e-Dreams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Dreams
Wonder if they'll make a sequel? :)
The documentary E-Dreams is a very interesting behind the scenes look at Kozmo's rise and (mostly) fall. Not a great documentary as a film, but definitely worth a watch if you're interested in the history of the dot com boom.
There's e-dreams, a movie about kozmo.com. It's available on you tube.
I saw it. Very good documentary.
"E-dreams" is another fantastic documentary about Kozmo.com.
A movie length documentary is actually something I am working on putting together. Delving into all that goes into being an entrepreneur. You can check out e-Dreams (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ELRug6fOM) or Startup.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ27rbJH6hI)for examples of older documentaries that are models for what I'd like to produce.
Truly believe that having a full length documentary that outlines what can truly happen in a startup can help inspire people to get involved (as The Social Network seemed to do).
Have 2 video guys (one produces for MTV True Life) involved in helping out. If anyone has ideas let me know! frank at songsicle dot com
E-Dreams http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/
I agree with this perspective. For example, I was interested in watching the movie E-Dreams the other day. I would have been more than willing to rent it on Amazon On-Demand, or iTunes, if it was available. However, it wasn't. And then I realized that it was on YouTube. So I just watched it there.
I don't mind paying $5 to rent a movie that I want to see. The fact is I don't have enough time in my life to watch all the stuff I want to watch, so when it comes down to it, I simply want the most convenient method of watching something. I'd prefer it not be shot with an unsteady handycam in a movie theater in Brazil with subtitles; I will pay to make sure the version I watch is of decent quality.
The fact is that the media industry is so busy trying to put out what it sees as fires (and these piracy fires are endless, by the way), instead of giving the consumer what they want. If they even had the smallest inkling of a brain, they would have already put their entire catalog online for direct purchase. No retarded DRM, or anything like that. Simply let people download the songs, at high quality, and then go after the most egregious forms of piracy. This would lead to higher margins (sales costs effectively go to 0), and they would be able to chill out a bit as well. Instead, they seem to think that living in their bunker somewhere is the way out of the situation, and are passing on probably the greatest revenue opportunity of all time.
Startup.com and E-dreams are documentaries about high flying startups (GovWorks and Kozmo.com, respectively) from the first dotcom boom.
Interestingly, both document NYC startups rather than Silicon Valley ones. There are some great Sand Hill road scenes in Startup.com, though.
If you enjoy "startup" type movies, might I also suggest these (documentaries, not comedy-drama):
startup.com http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/
e-dreams http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/
Exactly. Mod parent up.
I did see the movie this morning at 10am.
Lessig faults the film for not telling the story of Chris Hughs and Sean Parker's utilization of the internet for nonprofits and the election of Obama.
This is a platform that has made democratic innovation possible—and it was on the Facebook platform resting on that Internet platform that another Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes, organized the most important digital movement for Obama, and that the film’s petty villain, Sean Parker, organized Causes, one of the most important tools to support nonprofit social missions.
The tragedy—small in the scale of things, no doubt—of this film is that practically everyone watching it will miss this point.
I think Lessing really misses the point of the movie. What I saw was a young guy able to take VC money and not lose his post as CEO.
I didn't see Parker portrayed as a 'petty villian'.
SPOILER ALERT: In the movie, Parker first learns of thefacebook after a one night stand with a Stanford undergraduate. He asks if he can check his email on her laptop and notices the site. At that point, Stanford was one of the few university .edu email addresses allowed on the site. He is so convinced, thefacebook will be the next big thing, he needs to find the creators of the site.
Basically, Parker takes Fanning under his wing, suggesting he move to California. There is probably a 20 to 30 minute VC montage, where Parker helps thefacebook get funding, using his various connections. He also has Zuckerberg dress in his pajamas, (Parker drops him off in an Escalade and waits outside) and go to a specific VC, and has Zuckerberg tell the VC, Sean Parker says "Fuck you" and then leave.
I own Startup.com (the movie, not the domain), and also E-Dreams. Watching both too many times, neither movie had a happy ending for the founders (within the context of those specific startups).
Startup.com CTO is ousted by the CEO (the two founders were best friends). Kozmo.com's CEO got ousted by the VCs.
This movie left me feeling icky at the ending. Not "Requiem for a Dream" soul fuck, but you really don't know who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. It really isn't black and white like that.
It did, however, have one of the most cinematic uses of 'wget' I have ever seen.
Also, kind of cheap headline there. I thought it would be a movie review, not an articulated rant. I expect more from that Harvard law dude.
Also, I have never heard of Parker before this movie, I was only aware of Fanning as the Napster creator.
EDIT: Changed ambiguous pronouns
Obligatory plug for "E-Dreams", the Kozmo.com documentary.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/
The documentaries "E-Dreams" and "Startup.com" are more relevant to HN: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/
E-Dreams: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/ Startup.com: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/
Two feature length documentaries about Bubble-era startups:
Startup.com (about GovWorks -- they had the contract to process parking tickets for NYC parking tickets but they of course blew it with their extravagant spending)
E-Dreams (about Kozmo.com (RIP). haven't seen this, if anyone has it I would like to borrow/buy/digitally share it) The first 8 minutes are free here. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1283742294319360518&ei=CnLMSI_EMIjk-AGot-zFAg&q=e-dreams&vt=lf )
another good documentary, like startup.com, is e-dreams, the story of kozmo.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/
Startup.com was lame, it moved slow and had no point. I never did care at the end that their website blew up considering they never really explain why it blew up.
E-Dreams conversely was a better documentary in the same vein but harder to find. It talked about the rise and collapse of Kozmos.
Aadvark is lame. It's just a bunch of kids being hyper that they're working in New York with fancy schmancy big screen LCDs.
PBS also did a lot of features back in the 90's. Code Rush as someone mentioned and Revolution OS are both good to take a look.
In Search of the Valley http://www.stage4.co.uk/film/dvd_offer.php is also worth a look. The filmmakers examined why Silicon Valley is Silicon Valley and talked with quite a few well known people.
"... I'd go and offer places like Starbucks and Chapters free wireless for their customers. ..."
I wouldn't regret the decision that much if your idea revolved around Starbucks or even other large aggregators of customers. Joseph Park of Kozmo fame (see e-Dreams DVD) had a similiar idea back in Web 1. The deal went down requiring Kozmo paying Starbucks for the big bucks for the rights to serve their customers with a drop-off facility in what was meant to be a partnership. That's right they had to pay for the right to access customers. (You can see more on e-Dreams here ~ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262021/ )
So it might be a good idea but those with the customers aren't too interested in others servicing their customers. I don't know how you get around this.
Besides, any time you have to ask permission you are in trouble.