Film

Something Ventured

A brisk, talking-heads history of the venture capitalists who bankrolled Apple, Intel, Genentech and Google before anyone called it 'venture capital'. Narrated by Po Bronson, it's archival footage and old men reminiscing about the bets that paid off spectacularly. Good for anyone curious how Silicon Valley's money actually worked, less thrilling if you want drama over exposition.

TMDb rating6.4

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General Magic2019

The other side of this story: a startup with almost the same cast of characters that invented the smartphone years early and then imploded. Same world, opposite outcome.

But It's a tragedy of failure rather than triumph, and slower-paced if you're used to success stories.

General Magic poster

The Social Network2010

Fincher turns founder mythology into a courtroom thriller — the same ambition, betrayal and money-as-oxygen energy, just twenty years later and dressed as a legal drama.

But Heavily fictionalized and Sorkin-fast; it's Facebook's founding myth, not the VC world's.

The Social Network poster

Halt and Catch Fire2014

A fictional PC-boom drama that gets inside the obsession and heartbreak of building companies from nothing, with the empathy for founders and financiers this documentary only gestures at.

But Four seasons is a real commitment, and season one is a slow, uneven start.

Halt and Catch Fire poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Startup.com2001no page yet

It's the exact moment right after this film's story ends — the bet that didn't pay off, shot with none of the warm hindsight.

A fly-on-the-wall documentary that films a dot-com startup collapsing in real time — friendship, money and delusion falling apart on camera with no narrator to soften it.

But Bleak and claustrophobic; watching a friendship implode on screen is uncomfortable, not inspiring.

More like this (8)

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine2015

Sorkin's script strips Jobs down to three backstage arguments before three product launches — a sharper, meaner portrait of the genius this documentary treats reverently.

But Structurally unconventional and very talky; frustrating if you want a straightforward biography.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine poster

Silicon Cowboys2016no page yet

Compaq's underdog fight against IBM, told with the same scrappy archival-footage energy and genuine affection for the people who took the risk.

But Lower-key and less starry than the Apple/Google names you already know.

Silicon Valley2014

A vicious, hilarious satire of the exact ecosystem this documentary romanticises — pitch decks, term sheets, founder egos, all rendered absurd and true.

But Pure comedy, fictional, and tonally the opposite of the doc's earnest nostalgia.

Silicon Valley poster

The Founder2016

Ray Kroc's ruthless building of the McDonald's empire is the same hustle-and-betrayal engine, just running on burgers instead of microchips.

But Different industry entirely, and Kroc is a far less sympathetic protagonist.

The Founder poster

Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis2018no page yet

The same high-stakes, behind-closed-doors decision-making this documentary loves, but with the money nearly destroying the world instead of building it.

But Much darker subject matter — this is about catastrophe, not innovation.

Icahn: The Restless Billionaire2022no page yet

A character study of Carl Icahn's decades of financial combat — money and power as personality, the same genre of guy from a very different angle.

But Adversarial activist investing, not company-building; a cousin subject rather than a sibling one.

Tucker: The Man and His Dream1988

Same mythic shape, long before the term 'venture capital' existed: outsider genius, hostile incumbents, and a desperate need for someone to believe in the bet.

Coppola's glossy biopic of Preston Tucker, a visionary carmaker crushed by Detroit's establishment decades before Silicon Valley existed as an idea, let alone a place.

But Nearly forty years old and stylistically theatrical — closer to old Hollywood than documentary realism.

Tucker: The Man and His Dream poster

There Will Be Blood2007

Same obsession with the big bet and the fortune it might make, stripped of nostalgia to show what the gamble can cost.

An operatic tragedy about American ambition curdling into monstrousness — what staking everything on a big idea looks like when it consumes the man who made it.

But Slow, nearly two and a half hours, and deliberately punishing where the doc is genial.

There Will Be Blood poster

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