Hacker Cinema
Something Ventured
2011 · Film · documentary · 84 min
Directed by Dayna Goldfine, Daniel Geller
Apple. Intel. Genentech. Atari. Google. Cisco. Stratospheric successes with high stakes all around. Behind some of the world's most revolutionary companies are a handful of men who (through timing, foresight, a keen ability to size up other people, and a lot of luck) saw opportunity where others did not: these are the original venture capitalists. All were backing and building companies before the term 'venture capital' had been coined: companies that led to the birth of biotechnology and the spectacular growth in microprocessors, personal computers and the web. SOMETHING VENTURED uncovers the ups and downs of the building of some of the greatest companies of the twentieth century, and the hidden dramas behind some of the most famous names in business.
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14 comments on Hacker News
There is a very good documentary called Something Ventured[1].
It's really good. I think everyone into Startups must watch this. It's not second hand narration but the real VCs them selves telling the stories so I find it very reliable.
So in the documentary there is a section about VCs meeting Steve Jobs & Wozniak for the first time.
They passed on the investment saying that they were "not impressive".
One of the VCs (that refused to invest) was begged to show up at some computer conference to see how people were interacting with the Apple Computer.
The VC saw a very huge crowd of people around the Apple booth waiting for a turn to use the Apple computer.
The VC then completely changed his mind & decided to invest in Apple. When he did so, even the likes of Don Valentine now begged to enter the round.
My suspicion is that the crowd was artificial, Steve Jobs knew that if he could prove (or construct) some kind of hype around his Apple computer at the conference. It would conjure fear of missing out in the VCs or something akin to traction.
Note that everything else remained the same the product, the founders etc. He just added an ounce of hype.
[1]: https://youtu.be/7eV2L7CHCSQ?feature=shared
Since my divorce, I've found that I get a lot of help out of media like this for recharging my spirit to work on things. Sometimes kids' movies are the best, because they aren't at all about the 'how', but they are about the 'why'. Here's a list of a few that I find helpful:
Tomorrowland
Big Hero 6
Robots (2005)
The Martian
Sneakers
Real Genius
Wargames
Macguyver (80s show)
Cosmos
October Sky
Iron Man
The Astronaut Farmer
Flight of the Phoenix
Something Ventured
Now if I can only figure out how to get a team behind me like in those movies... :)
You might like "Bogowie". On the documentary side: "Something Ventured"
You would enjoy the documentary 'Something Ventured'. http://www.somethingventuredthemovie.com/
There's a great documentary on Netflix about this titled "Something Ventured."
There's a documentary about it on Netflix: "Something Ventured"
To quote a line from the documentary "Something Ventured":
"Who needs Harvard Business School when you have Silicon Valley Business School."
To be fair, I'm most likely paraphrasing. That being said I only have a GED/Some College experience and I've made it into Product Management.
not a book, but an excellent story about the valley's early days: Something Ventured https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Ventured http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737747/
There's a great 2011 documentary that features the old guard (Gordon Moore, Tom Perkins, Arthur Rock, etc). It's called "Something Ventured".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737747/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq7JVThjHEA
Thanks a lot !
I love those documentaries where they interview the people the documentary is about. It seems obvious, right ? Yet most documentaries only glamorize a story with no content.
There was a documentary on venture capital called "Something Ventured" which is great, as they interview many key people (founders, co-founders, VCs, etc).
On the topic of startup documentaries, Something Ventured was very good. It's in Netflix too.
I went down to Ann Arbor this week to see the debut of this documentary on the birth of the venture capital industry and it was quite good:
http://www.geekosystem.com/something-ventured-documentary/
Did you know that Intel's business plan was a single page double spaced and full of typos?
That Steve Jobs offered his then boss Nolan Bushnell half of Apple Computer for $50K? Bushnell passed and joked in the movie that he refused to calculate the return on that investment because it would be too painful ;<).
I recently saw Something Ventured, which is a very entertaining documentary about early silicon valley venture capitalists. http://www.somethingventuredthemovie.com/
There's a new documentary coming out about the creation of the VC industry called Something Ventured
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssR0sdKqNs4&feature=player_embedded
Looks pretty good