Lovers of technology and its stories have a promising 2022 in terms of series. The context of companies and startups that, for better or worse, have marked the world we live in, seem to have become one of the favorite genres of the moment for Hollywood and streaming platforms.
After a history of titles on the big screen more or less successful (Silicon Valley PiratesSteve Jobs movies, The social network…) and a more than successful approach to the series from the comedy with Silicon Valley and in a more serial way with proposals such as Halt and Catch Fire or, the recent one on Netflix, The code that was worth millionsthe following weeks and months are going to arrive with a lot of stories under their arms with the technology company (and its scandals) as a common denominator.
The first, this February 27, is the premiere of super-pumped (produced by Showtime and available on Movistar+ in Spain), telling the story of Uber and its controversial CEO Travis Kalanick, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Shortly after, on March 18, he arrives at AppleTV+ the history of the ascent and the collapse of WeWork in WeCrashedwith Jared Leto as Adam Neumann, co-founder and former CEO of the company, and Anne Hathaway as his wife Rebekah Neumann.
Finally, already in mid-April, in Disney+ in Spain, star in Latin America and Hulu in the United States, the rise of former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes will be streaming with Amanda Seyfried in the lead role in a series called The Dropout. And, of course, also the fall of him.
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Stories about tech giants and unicorns sell
It is not only that the platforms have got down to work with those stories that at the time we lovers of technology thought that “this should be told in a movie”but it seems that we will have more stories about unicorns in the future.
At least, if the bet of super-pumpedcreated by the team of billions, with Brian Koppelman and David Levien, and which will be just the first installment in an anthology of business stories. At the moment, it is not known which company the second season will focus on, but of course they have a sea of scandals to take ideas and also incredible stories.
super-pumped share the name of the journalist’s book New York Times Mike Isaac. In the same way, WeCrashed and The Dropout are based on the Wondery and ABC News investigative podcast series, respectively, of the same name.
The rise of the fascination with controversial startup founders could date back to the last decade, when it hit the movies stories like The social network (which now would surely need a second part) about Facebook – now Meta – and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, and won three Oscars in the process.
The difference in this case is that, although all the companies that are now going to arrive in the series have monopolized business attention, none of them is part of the largest, but each one of them is dedicated or was dedicated to trying to disrupt entirely an existing industry. Theranos to health, Uber to taxi, and WeWork to real estate.
The story of rise and fall behind each of them
The central theme of all these series seems to fixate on the notion that operating in the language of startups and investment rounds, sometimes outside the norm, can lead to impressive innovation, but there are human costs when founders of these companies become convinced that their vision fueled by investor money outweighs anything else, or even engage in a continuous rush forward.
This has given rise and surely continues to give rise to leaders that none of us would like to have as bosses, but that it seems that the technology industries and their ability to grow often above expectations has encouraged. For example, in the teaser for WeCrashedwhen a colleague tells you: “You know, you’re not God,” Leto, in the role of Neumann, whispers to him, “You have to admit, I do look a bit like him.”
The other side of the success of Uber and its CEO
![SUPER PUMPED Trailer SUBTITLED [HD] Joseph Gordon-Levitt,](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/bvNUE08haWo/hqdefault.jpg?w=780&ssl=1)
In September 2019, Mike Isaac’s bestselling book Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber pulled back the curtain on the removal of controversial Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
Uber was for some years a company that surpassed entire automobile groups in stock market valuation, until its model began to touch ground. Along the way, a series of sex scandals and a really toxic work culture began to come to light, with Kalanick in the center.
Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos
Of all the tech scammer stories, few have grabbed the news like that of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Summarizing the Theranos story is complex, but let’s just say that Holmes was able to fool much of the healthcare investment industry. Holmes was described as “the next Steve Jobs” for his idea of creating a company with a technology capable of making blood tests much simpler and revealing serious problems and diseases. The problem is that it was all smoke.
And the miscalculated success of WeWork
Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway take on the role of Adam and Rebekah Neumann, the power couple behind the often cult-like company that revolutionized the co-working industry.
WeWork grew in the heat of the Airbnb model for workspaces. It went public and then it was the company that had to leave it due to the collapse of its shares. In between, some CEOs with many problems with alcohol and more toxic culture.
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