Icelandic Entrepreneurs Release Film: The Startup Kids

    Vala Halldorsdottir and Sesselja Vilhjalmsdottir, both documentarians and entrepreneurs, say they began their startup film project because they wanted to motivate young people to become entrepreneurs. So basically they grabbed a camera, set up some interviews, and put the camera in front of the faces of tech entrepreneurs from the U.S. and Europe. The result is , The Startup Kids, a documentary that was revealed at the Palo Alto International Film Festival last September.

    Halldorsdottir tells us, “We had never done a movie before, just learned it on the way.” But they got some nice interviews, including ‘kids’ like Zach Klein from Vimeo, Drew Houston from Dropbox, Alexander Ljung from Soundcloud, Morten Lund – Danish VC and entrepreneur, and Kristian Stergerstrale from Playfish.

    What’s cool about the film is that they started off grass-roots, and are using a grass-roots distribution method. They first funded their film on Kickstarter, and are now reaching out to startup hubs, incubators, and entrepreneurship groups for showings. Groups and organizations can apply to show the film here.

    I haven’t seen the film yet, but judging from the trailer it seems like an interesting collection of interviews. And I appreciate the film’s target audience. Kids these days are finding more and more accessible role models for entrepreneurship, but I think there needs to be films like these to make that final connection that yes, anyone can do their own thing when it comes to their working life.

    You can watch the trailer here: