Bingeworthy TV Shows About Tech Startups You Can't Miss
Tech startup culture and the time of Silicon Valley unicorns like Uber and WeWork had a fascinating impact on tech and what UX/UI, Product Designers and engineers do. Here is a list of tv series and tv shows about these larger-than-life tech companies (both dramatized and fictional) and the eye-opening and entertaining retelling of startup stories, their triumphs and troubles, and the rise and fall of the eccentric founders who created them.
WeCrashed
The WeWork Story
Follow the meteoric rise and love of eccentric WeWork founder Adam Neumann. The series starting Jared Leto and Anne Hathway reenacts and retells the story that began in 2010, of the shared workspace company's growth to billions of dollars in valuation and a botched IPO. It's a real look into the 'cult-like' nature of tech startups that examines what really motivates and influences us in the workplace.
SuperPumped
The Uber Story
This TV series starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a dramatized retelling that chronicles how Uber disrupted the long untouched taxi industry and the outing of it's CEO Travis Kalanick. This show is based on the best-selling book "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber" by Mike Isaac and dramatizes one of Silicon Valley's most successful and destructive companies.
The Dropout
The Theranos Story
The story of health-tech startup Theranos and the real-life, bizarre and fascinating story of tech charlatan Elizabeth Holmes. Amanda Seyfried plays the Stanford dropout with a vision health care testing that could run hundreds of blood tests on a single drop of blood. It's a wild ride of business deception, lies and fraud.
Startup
Blockchain and Crypto Drama
Startup is the story of an unlikely trio in Miami (A Haitian-American, Cuban-American and American) that form a bond to rail against the US financial system and the circumstances that suppress them. The rebel team, led by a brilliant female coder comes up with the idea for a new digital currency she creates on the blockchain and dubs "GenCoin". The cryptocurrency drama is on the darker side and is not based on a true story, but shows the length they will go through to protect their ideas, their families, and change the system.
Silicon Valley
Startup Comedy
A hilarious satire about the world of startups, this well-researched yet, over-the-top parody is funny and entertaining because it's true. The series is a parody of Silicon Valley culture, starting Thomas Middleditch, a programmer who founds the fictional startup Pied Piper, and his biggest competitor tech giant Hooli. The parallels to real tech giants and startup scenarios is clear.
Halt and Catch Fire
1980s Startup Boom
This fictional show takes place during the 1980s and is based on the technological boom at the onset of personal computing. This series centers around a visionary founder, an engineer and a tech prodigy whose ideas confront the corporate status quo of the time led by companies like IBM.
Girlboss
NastyGal Brand Story
Based on real events, Girlboss is the story of Nasty Gal's founder Sophia Amoruso that chronicles the millennial's rags-to-riches rise from thrift store hustler to vintage fashion empire and her famous hastag #GIRLBOSS.
Like this kind of stuff? Check out our recommendations for design documentaries that you can watch on Netflix right now!