"This is the type of film I love to make," says Hegedus. "To follow people over a long period of time, and watch characters develop and emotions and passions come to the surface as they do in a fiction film."

Thanks to the filmmakers’ tenacity and their penchant for intimate storytelling, the documentary becomes more than just a timely investigation into the issues currently plaguing the Internet start-up world. "It closely examines the collision of friendship and business," says Noujaim. "With so much pressure and money at stake, can you be a good businessperson and a good friend at the same time?"

"Ultimately," suggests Hegedus, "this is a classic story about friendship and ambition and loyalty." Adds Pennebaker, "The film has an almost Russian quality to it, in that the characters are absolutely bound by their natures. They think in the beginning they can go anywhere, and yet they end up exactly where their innate impulses were leading them. It’s really a case of character as fate."

With the recent troubling turns in the country’s economy and the continuing demise of hundreds of Internet companies, Startup.com seems poised to become an important historical record of current events. "This story is compelling because it could not have happened in any other time and it will not happen in the same way again," says co-executive producer Frazer Pennebaker. "I don’t think anyone will fully understand the importance of this new economy until 50 years from now."

And when we do look back, Startup.com will be a crucial part of that testimony.

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