Pathik Shah

Best Movies on Startups and Entrepreneurship

There comes a point in every entrepreneur’s life, when he needs some inspiration to keep moving forward. What’s more inspiring than a movie about a startup, about startup life and the harsh realities, as well as the joys of being an entrepreneur?

In this post, I will try to compile a list of all the best startup movies I’ve seen. I’m adding those movies which are about tech startups, as well as some which aren’t. If you think I have missed any good ones, do mention it in the comments. I will try to update this list as frequently as I can.

Best Movies About Startups

The Social Network – 8.2/10

The best startup movie ever, and possibly the best movie of 2010. A chronicle of the founding of Facebook, the social-networking Web site.

Startup.com – 7.0/10

A documentary which traces the birth and failure of new media company govWorks.com

Code Rush – 7.4/10

Code Rush follows the people of Netscape Communications during an intense period in 1998, when it was all but certain that Microsoft had already won control of the Internet user’s desktop.

Riot On! – 5.9/10

The year is 2000 and investors are going crazy about a new mobile phone company called Riot Entertainment. Many high profile companies, like Nokia, invest millions on this unknown firm. Two years later, when all the money has been spent and the company is bankrupt, the fun is over. What happened?

August – 5.4/10

August centers on two brothers fighting to keep their start-up company afloat on Wall Street during August 2001, a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Movies about the History of the Computer Industry

The Triumph of the Nerds – 8.7/10

The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires – An irreverent history of the PC industry.

Pirates of the Silicon Valley – 6.9/10

The history of Apple vs Microsoft, Jobs vs Gates.

Revolution OS – 7.3/10

A documentary about the open source movement. Starring Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman and Eric Raymond.

Tangential Movies about Startups

Wall Street – 7.3/10

A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider whom takes the youth under his wing.

Boiler Room – 6.9/10

A college dropout gets a job as a broker for a suburban investment firm, which puts him on the fast track to success, but the job might not be as legitimate as it sounds.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room – 7.7/10

A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.

Glengarry Glen Ross – 7.9/10

An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office.

If you know of any more, let me know in the comments.

Also, check out this list of the Best Startup and Entrepreneurship Blogs

Of all the awesome Android phones available worldwide, there are only a select few which you can find in India. In this post, I will tell you about the best Android phone you can find in India – both in the budget category and in the high end segment.

EDIT:

For Rs. 15000, the best Android phone is the Samsung Galaxy Ace

For Rs. 20000, the best Android phone is the Samsung Galaxy S LCD

Best Budget (Cheapest) Android Phone – LG Optimus One – Rs 13500

The LG Optimus One P500 is easily the best budget Android phone available in India. It offers the best hardware in its price range – 600 MHz processor, 419 MB RAM, 3.2 inch touchscreen display and a 3.15 MP camera.

It runs the latest version of the Android OS – Android 2.2 Froyo, when all the other budget phones run Android 2.1. It is available for just Rs. 13500.

LG Optimus One P500 Specifications

Display: 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen, 320 x 480 pixels
OS: Android 2.2 Froyo
Processor: 600 MHz
RAM: 419 MB
Memory: 170 MB internal, 32 GB microSD support
Camera: 3.15 MP camera, autofocus
Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
GPS: GPS with A-GPS
Battery: Li-ion battery, 1500 mAh
Price: Rs.12499

Buy LG Optimus One P500 from Flipkart

Edit: If you can spend Rs 15000, go for the Samsung Galaxy Ace. It has just released and is much better than the LG Optimus One

Best Android Phone in India – Samsung Galaxy S – Rs 27000

The Samsung Galaxy S is undoubtedly the most popular Android phone ever. It has had record sales, and offers almost everything you would need in a smartphone.

It runs Android 2.2 Froyo with the TouchWiz 3.0 UI. It comes with a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor and 512 MB RAM. It has 16 GB internal storage and comes with a 4 inch SuperAMOLED capacitive touchscreen display. It also has a 5 MP camera which can record 720p video. It is the best Android smartphone in India.

Samsung Galaxy S I9000 Specifications

Display: 4.0 inch SuperAMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 480 x 800 pixels
OS: Android 2.2 Froyo with TouchWiz 3.0 UI, Swype
Processor: 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8
RAM: 512 MB
Memory: 16 GB internal, 32 GB microSD support
Camera: 5 MP camera, autofocus, 720p video
Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA,
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP
GPS: GPS with A-GPS
Battery: Li-ion battery, 1500 mAh
Price: Rs. 27999

Buy Samsung Galaxy S I9000 from Flipkart

Top 10 Blogs and Websites for Startups and Entrepreneurship Advice

Here’s a list of the best blogs and websites I’ve come across which focus on startups and entrepreneurship. Most of these blogs have really informative articles which provide excellent advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start their own company.

BTW, also check out this list of the Best Startup Movies about Entrepreneurship

Top 10 Startup Blogs
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Paul Graham

Paul Graham is the founder of Viaweb, Y Combinator (the most popular startup incubator which provides seed funding and advice to early stage startups) and Hacker News. His essays are some of the best articles on startups and entrepreneurship ever and should be on the reading list of every aspiring entrepreneur.

Mixergy

Mixergy is a blog by Andrew Warner, a successful entrepreneur which has a collection of interviews with a lot of startup founders including Paul Graham, Jason Fried, Jason Calacanis, Anand Shimpi, Alexis Ohanian etc about their early startup days and their experiences.

Onstartups

A startup blog offering basic advice about startup marketing, funding, raising capital etc by Dharmesh Shah, the founder of Hubspot and Pyramid Digital Solutions.

Steve Blank

A blog on startups by Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur turned professor who taught a course on entrepreneurship to students at U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University. Excellent advice for new startups.

Both Sides of the Table

A startup blog by Mark Suster, an entrepreneur turned VC. Has some great insights on entrepreneurship and advice on how to raise venture capital.

Marc Andreessen

The blog of Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape and Opsware. He is now a VC (Andreessen Horowitz) and his blog offers some of the best startup advice you can find online.

Chris Dixon

It’s the blog of Chris Dixon, the co-founder of Hunch and an early investor in many successful startups like Skype, Foursquare, Stack Overflow, TrialPay, DocVerse and Invite Media.

A VC

A blog by Fred Wilson, a VC (Union Square Ventures). Great tips on raising venture capital and other advice on how to deal with VCs.

Startup Lessons Learned

A startup blog by Eric Ries, a proponent of the Lean Startup Methodology. Some really good posts there.

A Smart Bear

A startup blog by Jason Cohen, a successful entrepreneur (Smart Bear Software) with some nice posts for startup founders.

EDIT:

Ben Horowitz

Ben Horowitz is a successful entrepreneur turned VC (He is the co-founder of the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz). His blog is relatively new but is frequently updated with great advice for startups.

Gabriel Weinberg

Gabriel Weinberg is the founder of Duck Duck Go, a really cool search engine which gives accurate results and an angel investor. His blog has some really good posts on startups, angel investing and such.

Startup News

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Techcrunch

Techcrunch is basically a tech news blog which covers technology startups and also features articles and guest posts on entrepreneurship and startups from time to time.

GigaOM

GigaOM is a blog by Om Malik, a technology journalist which covers tech news and has some nice articles and interviews on tech startups.

ReadWriteStart

ReadWriteStart is part of the ReadWriteWeb network which focuses on budding startups and has a lot of interviews of successful entrepreneurs.

PluGGd.in

The best startup blog focusing on Indian startups. It covers new Indian startups, features really good startup advice and has some excellent guest posts by successful Indian entrepreneurs.

Mashable

Mashable is another tech news blog which covers web and social media startups.

If you like this post, please bump it on Hacker News and Reddit.

Note:

Please comment and point me to any good startup blog that I may have missed.

Another nice compilation of startup blogs: Startup Blogs To Make You a Better Entrepreneur

A list of the best geek webcomics I’ve come across on ze interwebs. Some of them aren’t exactly geeky, but fun nevertheless.

1. XKCD

2. Dilbert

3. Joy of Tech

4. Geek and Poke

5. Geek Hero

6. Oatmeal

7. Doghouse Diaries

8. Ctrl + Alt + Del

9. Abstruse Goose

10. Cyanide and Happiness

11. Real Life Comics

12. Foxtrot

Leave your suggestions and recommendations in the comments.

Here’s a list of the Top / Best / Must-Watch Con / Heist Movies I’ve come across. I haven’t seen some of them, but have heard a lot about them and plan to watch them soon.

Not all of them can be exactly categorized as con movies, but most of them come close.

Top 10 Con Movies

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The Sting – 8.4/10

In 1930s Chicago, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker.

The Bank Job – 7.5/10

Martine offers Terry a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London’s Baker Street. She targets a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry. But Terry and his crew don’t realize the boxes also contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets – secrets that will thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal.

Dog Day Afternoon - 8.2/10

The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live T.V. 12 hours later, it was all history. And it’s all true

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – 8.1/10

Four London working class stiffs pool their money to put one in a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds and having one week to come up with the cash.

Snatch – 8.2/10

Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

Reservoir Dogs – 8.4/10

Seven total strangers team up for the perfect crime. They don’t know each other’s name. But they’ve got each other’s color.

Catch Me If You Can – 7.7/10

A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor.

Heat – 8.3/10

A Los Angeles crime saga, “Heat” focuses on the lives of two men on opposite sides of the law – one a detective; the other a thief.

Matchstick Men – 7.4/10

A phobic con artist and his protege are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist’s teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – 7.0/10

Lawrence and Freddie are con-men; big-time and small time respectively. They unsuccessfully attempt to work together only to find that this town (on the French Mediterranean coast) aint big enough for the two of them. They agree to a “loser leaves” bet. The bet brings out the best/worse in the two.

The Spanish Prisoner – 7.3/10

An employee of a corporation with a lucrative secret process is tempted to betray it. But there’s more to it than that.

21 – 6.8/10

“21″ is the fact-based story about six MIT students who were trained to become experts in card counting and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.

Ocean’s Eleven – 7.0/10

Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices come together to pull off the most daring heist Las Vegas has ever known… 11 men, 3 casinos, 150 million dollars, 1 chance to pull it off.

Ocean’s Twelve – 6.0/10

Daniel Ocean recruits one more team member so he can pull off three major European heists in this sequel to Ocean’s 11.

Ocean’s Thirteen – 7.0/10

Danny Ocean rounds up the boys for a third heist, after casino owner Willy Bank double-crosses one of the original eleven, Reuben Tishkoff.

The Italian Job – 6.9/10

A group of thieves plan to pull of the heist of their lives by creating Los Angeles largest traffic jam ever.

Note:

This is in no way a complete list. I’ve yet to see many good movies so I will keep adding to it whenever I come across a good one. If you know of any good con movies I’ve missed, leave a comment.

Yea, I know it’s 16, but 16 isn’t as SEO friendly as 10