Since the beginning of the 90s, Malaysia has invested millions into promoting tech startups, in an attempt to replicate Silicon Valley in the West. “Startup: The Real Story” follows this effort until today, by focusing on the 10 year journey of e-Sentral, an ebook tech company that began as a startup, highlighting through its path, the whole concept of startups in Malaysia.
“Startup: The Real Story” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
The documentary begins in 1991, with Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, then Prime Minister of the country, giving a speech about his vision to make Malaysia a fully developed nation by 2020, thus kickstarting the Vision 2020 incentive. The first aspect of the whole project was the creation of MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor), an area that was supposed to become something similar with the Silicon Valley in the US. As the juxtaposition of footage from the past with images of the present carries on, Ridgway also presents his “protagonists”, people directly involved with the whole concept, which he had interviewed extensively. One of the three co-founders of eSentral, Faiz Al-Shahab takes center stage, being the one most extensively interviewed, but the film also includes info provided by various politicians, including Mohamad, tech professionals, presidents and CEOs of various companies, all of which paint a rather analytical portrait of tech entrepreneurship in Malaysia.
As the documentary unfolds, the focus changes from the success story of Malaysian economy the local governments usually promote, to the issues the whole concept of startup presents, with the majority of interviews “blaming” the overall financial environment, particularly in the ways the government is involved, and the faulty mentality of many startup owners, who did not realize how difficult it is to make something from nothing, in this highly competitive field. The issues with venture capitals, the intense encouragement of university graduated to follow careers in technology, the high rate of failure in the early stage of these companies, and a comparison with the much more successful Singapore result in a rather thorough depiction of the main subject. Truth be told, it would have been interesting to also show what Malaysian startup enabling agencies had to say, but as the ending of the movie notes, their representatives refused to be interviewed.
The combination of all the aforementioned elements is ideal, with Omar Alatthas's editing combining them in the best fashion in order to build the story, and through a rather fast pace that actually fits the subject to perfection. One could say that the doc somewhat functions as a promotion piece for eSentral, but the way the story of the company is presented, with its success only being visible at the end of the doc and the focus being more on the struggles then the accomplishments, proves that that is not the case at all.
At 47 minutes, “Startup: The Real Story” manages to present its subject as thoroughly as possible, and through a cinematic approach that is rather entertaining, even if Faiz Al-Shahab's tone can be a bit monotonous at times.
