At first glance one might think a tech startup and a feature film are different. Yet, as it happens, bootstrapping and building a tech company and making an independent feature film are surprisingly similar. This was something that surprised me because I went from being a startup CEO to a movie producer.
What can you learn from this? While your skills may be more transferable than you think, grit is just as important, as are equal doses of preparation and luck.
A few years after co-founding the digital health startup WellPaper, I created This bloody countryAn independent feature film, and I expected the two experiences to be completely different.
At their core, both start with a unique idea and a small team, naive and determined enough to pull it off. The risk is high and many cannot do it. However, a surprising number of the basics are the same.
It all starts with an idea. Every startup and every film starts with a spark. For a startup, this is a problem worth solving. For a film, it’s a story that needs to be told.
At Wellpaper, Spark helps patients manage care outside the clinic. for This bloody countery, it was making a western from a perspective never seen before: a religious family fending for themselves, mostly women and children, in 1860s Utah Territory.
You create a founding team. The best startup teams have a few relevant skills and enough skepticism to believe they can figure out the rest.
For Wellpepper, the founding team was CTO Mike Van Schnellenberg And neither of us come from healthcare. We were technologists who believed we could apply product and design thinking to improve the patient experience. That outside perspective becomes an advantage when we ask silly questions, challenge assumptions, and move faster than those who “know” how things should work.
for This bloody countryThe founding team was writer/director Craig Packard And I didn’t have studio backing, but we had a shared creative vision and a stubborn optimism to figure it out as we went. We had an award-winning script, written by Craig. We asked for different opinions on characters, settings, and historical periods and pressure tested how the page would translate to the screen by putting ourselves in the audience’s eyes.
In both cases, we started with ideas about how to make the idea a reality — sketching, testing, and adjusting until we found something that resonated. Then we had to figure out how to accomplish this with a business plan that was tied into a pitch deck. The next step was to find people who believed in our shared vision and were willing to invest. While Wellpaper was a C-Corp and Movie was an LLC, both were designed as investment vehicles with cap tables.
In startups, you’re promising a future that doesn’t exist yet. In film, you’re selling a story that hasn’t been made. The ability to explain “why this, why now, and why us” determines whether you find your first investors.
You have to be ready to take advantage of luck. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and we had our first lucky encounter with both projects.
For Wellpepper, we met Dr. Terry Ellis From Boston University when all we had was a prototype. Dr. Parkinson’s disease specialist. Ellis, was studying how out-of-clinic care could help slow disease progression and became one of our first research partners. That collaboration resulted in two randomized controlled trial studies (also in collaboration Dr. Jonathan Bean from Harvard), and publication in peer-reviewed journals – strong validation that our product actually improved outcomes.
for This bloody countryOur extended family of lawyers served on the board Deer Springs Ranch Kanab, Utah – which became our primary filming location. The incredible scenery offered our movie a million-dollar backdrop. We couldn’t have made the film without the help of his extended family: our lawyer’s sister-in-law, an expert in period costume, was our costume designer, and his brother-in-law was the armourer, the art department, and even worked as a robber.
Sometimes good timing and luck masquerade as coincidences. It’s important to be ready to recognize opportunity when it comes knocking.
A beginner’s mind helps you recognize patterns. Many in both industries told me it couldn’t be done. In healthcare, experts warn that startups cannot navigate the complexities of clinical systems. In the film, the veteran said that creating an independent feature is not the same as running a startup.
They were right – and wrong. The details are different, but the patterns are the same. Both require solving complex, human problems with limited resources and imperfect information.
Approaching each challenge with a beginner’s mind — curious, open, and not constrained by “how it’s always been done” — was essential. The key is not to assume you know the answer but to recognize familiar shapes in new contexts: creating a vision, assembling a team, creating a project plan, and delivering a product to a customer or audience.
In both startups and films, you must hire quickly, fire carefully, and align people around missions. You look for collaborators who can thrive in obscurity, bring specialized skills, and check their egos at the door. Whether an engineer or a cinematographer, success depends on people who believe in the vision and are willing to do what it takes to get the job done.
The ability to translate experiences across domains – without assuming they are identical – is what made both initiatives work You can’t import the playbook, but you can import the mindset.
Bootstrap before you scale. It is often said that a CEO must wear all the hats before hiring them, they will not be the best in the role, but they will lead better if the role is filled by an expert. In a startup or indie film, founder or producer; You are the marketer, the accountant, and sometimes a guy who carries gear or answers the tech support hotline
You’ll learn to do more with less, learn to make trade-offs and keep momentum even when there’s no money in the budget. You have to ask for benefits and negotiate. In general, people want to help, and you’ll be surprised at what you can get if you ask.
Iterate, test, and refine. There’s a saying in startups that if you’re not shy about releasing your first product, you waited too long to ship. The same can be said for getting a rough cut of a film in front of a loyal audience.
For both, though, you need to be strong in your vision to look for any feedback that indicates there may be a problem. If something was confusing to the end-consumer, both in the startup and the movie, it was an indication that we needed to iterate and deliver the North Star to change.
Headwinds vs. Tailwinds. As Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Both paths are defined by risk and may benefit or be challenged by factors beyond your control. Competitors get press or funding, a very similar film or genre succeeds or flops. Regulatory change offers advantages or disadvantages. Wellpaper was helped by the value-based care initiative that provided the tailwind. The film faced some additional costs due to Covid-related regulations when we were screening. You wake up every morning knowing the plan might not last through the day. Being able to pivot and resilience are key to accomplishing this.
That’s hard to do in Seattle. When we started Wellpaper, many VCs rejected us because we weren’t in Silicon Valley. There were originally two VC firms in the city. We were told to move. We didn’t, and that probably made it harder, but it paved the way for many more digital health startups in the city. Likewise, it probably would have been easier to get a movie made in LA where the primary industry is showbiz, but we got a small, committed group here (shout out to our executive producer and camera department) and quietly made something out of the system.
What founders and filmmakers can learn from each other
Don’t index on outliers. We’ve all heard the overnight success stories: the movie that had a bidding war at a major festival, the startup that came out of nowhere and got acquired by a big tech company. The reality is that most people work long hours before they are heard. That film script may have been kept for years. Startups can pivot from something you’ve never heard of. Build what you believe in for the customer you want to serve and try not to focus on the seemingly quick wins others are getting.
Think about distribution from the start. How is your product going to get customers? How will they hear about it? Where do they get it? Placing an app on the App Store or a video on a streaming platform is really the first step in distribution. Although most films are now digital, there are still distributors that can stream content everywhere (which often have different format requirements or submission guidelines). While there are outlets like Filmhub that enable self-distribution, getting above the word often requires third-party help like software.
Build a team for the long haul. The team will make or break your project, and while we all like to think that success will be faster, you can work with these people for a long time. You’re going to have a long night, and pull off miracles with this team. Hire people you’ll hire repeatedly for your next creative project, your next startup, or building a team within a larger company if you decide to go that route.
Learn to tell stories. Telling stories with passion resonates with people. Whether pitching investors or distributors, clarity and emotional resonance are your most powerful tools. When it comes to your product or your movie, it connects with your users and audience. Start measuring early — whether it’s clicks, social media mentions, Kickstarter backers. Data is needed to show that there is a market for your product or your film. Data is a key part of storytelling that makes people believe.
Be prepared for luck. Be ready to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves (or know when to drop everything to prepare). Getting more traction than you expect is a solvable problem. Don’t be afraid to scale.
Creating something from nothing is an act of optimism. Sticking with it is a miserable job. Back it up with data: Roughly 90% of startups fail and nearly 97% of independent films never recover their investment. Wellpaper was among the small group of startups that achieved a successful exit when acquired in 2020, which gave me the confidence to take on the film challenge. This bloody country It hasn’t finished its journey yet, but it has been picked up by Quiver Distribution, is getting rave reviews and is available to buy and rent on most streaming platforms.
At the end of the day, both journeys are about making an impact, whether it’s for a patient empowered to manage their own health, or for a viewer thrilled and driven by a story. And in both worlds, real victory isn’t just exits or box office—it’s bringing together an incredible group of people to turn an idea into something tangible to share with the world.