From the late 90s Internet mania to today's sobering landscape of dot-com burn-outs, the dot-com craze provided an unparalleled view of the American dream at its most noble and most greedy.  

Message in a Bubble follows the New Economy pioneers in their own environment, creating a time capsule of an outrageous moment in American history. The style of the film is exciting and accessible, so that all audiences will get caught up in the experience and the emotion of Dot-Com Land. 

Folkestone Productions traveled from Silicon Valley to San Diego, from Boulder to Miami, from New York to Toledo to survey the experiences of the players and the wannabes who made us believe that anyone could start a successful business.  

The story begins with mind-boggling tales of an industry at hyperspeed. We get an intimate portrait of Jared Polis, who started six companies that changed the world and made him a billion dollars by the age of 24. We follow the venture capitalists looking for the New, New Thing and the entrepreneurs who promise that they have it. We find a 50-year-old woman from Toledo, OH who has bucked all the Internet entrepreneur stereotypes to found her children's news service.  

That was before the fall. In one incredibly turbulent year, the situation changed drastically. Some of our characters are still prospering. Others are scraping to get by. Four of the businesses we followed no longer exist, including UBUBU and Bigstar Entertainment. Our 24-year-old billionaire has gone into politics. Some of our characters are unemployed and shocked at how fast the New Economy turned to vapor. At the end of the film, we discover a group of jettisoned dot-commers who are fashioning the $100 Billion Quilt, a patchwork made up of Internet company t-shirts that will hang over Wall Street.  

During the Internet bubble, the world changed before our eyes and then changed back again. During that window, people had the chance as never before to become entrepreneurs. Message in a Bubble takes an unprecedented look at what happens to people when their dreams suddenly come true - and when those dreams are just as suddenly dashed.  

Companies and Characters in the Film 

Companies featured as subjects: 
Bigstar  
Bluemountain.com  
The Feedroom  
Fort Point Partners  
Live365.com  
I-Hatch  
NFTE  
PencilNews  
Proflowers.com  
PurpleYogi 
Stardot Consulting  
UBUBU  

Characters featured: 
Scott Anderson, Fort Point Partners  
Chip Austin, iHatch Ventures  
Amar Bhidé, Author, Origins and Evolutions of New Business  
Jay Erickson, Bootstrap Software  
David Friedensohn, Bigstar Entertainment, SonicNet  
Jason Hsaio, UBUBU  
Jonathan Klein, CBS, The Feedroom  
Raghav Gupta, Live365.com  
Ken Lipper, Lipper & Co, investment banker  
Rakesh Mathur, PurpleYogi  
Judy Miller, PencilNews  
Jared Polis, Bluemountain.com, Proflowers, AIS, Stardot, etc.  
Courtney Pulitzer, Cocktails with Courtney  
Michael Wolff, Author, Burn Rate 

(Not Available for USA)