Venture capitalists who enabled maverick entrepreneurs to start and grow such companies as Intel, Apple, Genentech and Atari speak frankly about risk, loss and gain in this surprisingly entertaining doco.
[This] might be the rarest bird in the documentary world: a genuine love story about capitalism.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2011
Something Ventured 2011
Heroes of capitalism, men who put their money on the line for such famously unpromising specimens as Steve Jobs, speak frankly about risk, loss, gain and the ruthlessness with which business can treat its innovators in this smartly entertaining doco. — BG
“Visionary investors are enthusiastically celebrated in Something Ventured, a slickly produced anecdotal account of how venture capitalists enabled maverick entrepreneurs to start and grow such companies as Intel, Apple, Genentech and Atari. Documakers Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller [Ballets Russes] have concocted an entertaining, smartly edited mix of firsthand recollections, illustrative archival footage and photos, and cleverly chosen factoids, all the while sustaining a lively pace throughout several chapters of a fascinating and easily accessible history lesson… ‘Without venture capitalists,’ Atari founder Nolan Bushnell says, ‘the future wouldn't happen nearly so quickly.’ Something Ventured provides ample evidence to support Bushnell's claim.” — Joe Leydon, Variety