VIDEO: The Entrepreneur documentary about Malcolm Bricklin now playing on Autoblog
Forget Blockbuster. Forget Netflix. Let Autoblog take care of movie night this week. We're presenting The Entrepreneur (Check out a review on Cinematical.com) on our silver screen through 7/30 courtesy of SnagFilms.com. This recently released documentary is all about Malcolm Bricklin, and it was directed by his son, John Bricklin. You may think you know all about the man who brought Subaru to the U.S. and introduced Americans to the Yugo, but you just don't until you watch his attempt to bring Chinese cars to the U.S. The "Chery Deal" is this story's main propellant, and it's the perfect backdrop against which to watch this force of nature in the business world work.
So pop some popcorn, find a plastic cup that can hold a Hoover's Dam worth of Coke and hit play after the jump.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SubieYota 8:55PM (7/27/2009)
That old school, balls on the table, tech oblivious, lack of influence, attitude is a generation that is being phased out as we speak.
Should have stuck with Subie.
-gen Y entrepreneur.
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ckm 10:19PM (7/27/2009)
You've got it all wrong and you should learn the lessons from Bricklin.
I've advised close to 60 startups in the last 5 years. The only ones that make it is the ones that have someone like Bricklin leading them. It takes a lot of guts, self-confidence and focus to pull anything off, and even more so when the numbers are huge.
And tech is pretty much irrelevant to this story and to most startups. Tech without a good business model is just that, tech, and nothing else, certainly no money.
Bricklin correctly understood that business model, market knowledge and marketing were the most important things he could bring the venture. He built a distributor network and made Cherry a household name. And he raised $200 million. If Cherry hadn't backed out, they would be selling cars now.
Level 12:02PM (7/28/2009)
gen Y entrepreneurs get screwed over just like the real founder of Tesla Motors....
chris m 2:52AM (7/29/2009)
subieyota,
it is a pleasure to meet you sir.
i have to agree with ckm on this one. it takes someone who has the persistance and determination of a malcolm bricklin to start and remain successful as an entrepreneur. especially in the automotive business.
now there are those whom may be more polished, have the resources at hand, form an impressive team, etc. however, name someone in recent memory who had the vision to see what was coming and attempt to act on it and possibly profit from it.
granted, malcolm bricklin comes off as arrogant. however, chery motors is even more so in this one. they know the american market better than mr. bricklin? no way. in this movie, it is apparent that mr. bricklin has pretty good instincts about the american car market.
now, if you think what i am saying is crazy, i would suggest reading up on a gentleman named maximillian e. hoffmann. that will give you an idea of a businessman/entrepreneur. doing business in this day and age must not, cannot, and will not be restricted to technological devices. one must meet face to face in order to get a measure of the person. especially when it involves hundreds of millions. and in this case possibly billions of dollars.
regards,
vrmchris
Reimer 10:07PM (7/27/2009)
It's not available......?
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indijanac 10:56PM (7/27/2009)
I can't see it either. :(
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indijanac 10:58PM (7/27/2009)
Never mind, it works now.
P.S we need an option for editing our posts.
the4thheat 11:40PM (7/27/2009)
Chery sent their newest hire to deal with this guy...hilarious.
It would probably be better if they were pronouncing the car company's name right when you're talking to them...or maybe know how to bargain with Chinese businesses.
Seriously the way he's negotiating is awful-if he was serious he should have at least hired a consultant on doing business in China because if this is how he was negotiating this is about the most amateur crap I've ever seen.
His negotiation style in China is equivalent to someone showing up at your door and kicking you in the balls. He might as well start handing out flyers in the street in Shenzhen because his negotiating is actually less useful than that.
If you wanna show that you're 100% serious about doing business with a Chinese car company how about maybe showing up with someone who can speak Chinese to negotiate with their execs?! Not very convincing when you're just 3 random idiots spewing BS.
Anyways I think Chery was probably right to ignore this idiot and wait until their cars are more mature before attempting to come to the US market. Pulling a Hyundai then having to repair your reputation for the next 2 decades isn't really a great strategy, and the fact that Bricklin cites Yugo is just sad.
Hilarious that the narration by his son claims that Chinese business is "shrewd and emotionless" and then Bricklin is off on a racist rant about the Chinese being conniving and cheap because they don't want to deal with him? Just because they're not total suckers doesn't make them conniving. And not wanting to give you all their profits isn't cheap, it's how you do business.
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the4thheat 11:51PM (7/27/2009)
And for the record it wouldn't even be that hard to do a serious attempt at a real deal with a Chinese car company, but doing it Bricklin's way is just about the only way to guarantee failure.
If it were me I'd show up with someone familiar with business in China, even just a 100K a year investment banker, along with a few former Ford or GM engineers (plenty of laid off people you know) to show that you're actually serious about figuring out how to get the cars ready and figuring out how they are.
Hilarious that they claim they were betrayed at the end after spending $26 million...what exactly did they spend $26 million on other than a pretty building and plasma TVs everywhere.
If anything this video just shows how much Chery doesn't need idiots like Bricklin. They're be much better off doing their own thing like Hyundai did.
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Level 12:08PM (7/28/2009)
let me see Bricklin tried with Chery it failed, Steve Saleen tried with Chery it failed, Chrysler tried with Chery that went bust, Quantum tried with Chery that failed too I remember there was one more company that tried also that also went bust....soo ahh nope have to disagree with you, Chery is looking out to screw over anybody they can to advance and get a better edge...If it wasnt for Bricklin and his tactics Chery would of never been a house hold name in the US market...Who the hell was Chery b4 Bricklin came along?
the4thheat 8:59PM (7/28/2009)
Wait, it's Chery's fault now that Chrysler went bankrupt? The deal fell apart because Chrysler was falling apart itself, but now it's Chery's fault that Chrysler had been run into the ground over the last 10 years?
And Quantum is one of the companies that Bricklin was suing, along with it's parent company Israel corp. Far as I can tell they're not bankrupt at all so I have no idea what you're ranting and raving about. As for Saleen what knowledge exactly does he have of importing foreign vehicles and re-engineering imports to meet US crash standards?
You might as well have West Coast Choppers and Jesse James go and ask Chery for a partnership.
Seriously when Bricklin obviously had nothing to offer for actually getting the cars ready for the US market and Chery realized he was just a glorified salesman he got the boot. How is Chery "screwing over" anybody when these guys are providing nothing Chery couldn't do with a few phone calls themselves (far as I can tell the only thing Bricklin actually did other than spew BS was to sign up a few dealerships to distribute Chery vehicles, and that's insanely easy when there's thousands of dealerships getting cut loose by the Big 3).
The Chrysler partnership was the most legitimate of them all but Chrysler melting down and desperately trying to partner with every car company on the planet isn't exactly Chery's fault. Not much point to the Chery partnership now that they're owned by Fiat.
sca 1:09AM (7/28/2009)
Ironic. Chrysler went bankrupt, the deal with Chery dissolved, as did several with Nissan… and now they are owned by Fiat. You can thank the wizards over at Cerberus, and guys like LaSorda for all that Chery/Chrysler stuff. What bothers me most about all of it, is that no one has the faith in American manufacturing and ingenuity anymore. As if somehow only China, India or Poland can make a strong business case. Maybe now that GM and Chrysler hit bankruptcy, and thousands of workers, engineers, and designers are out of work, someone can pick up the valuable scraps left behind, and make use of what the BIG three could never seem to do anything with. Thought provoking film for sure.
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jpm100 7:26AM (7/28/2009)
You can't beat the wages paid in China and India. Literally you can't. It would be illegal. And even the illegal market here is more expensive. Japan is in the same boat as the US in this respect too.
meshies 3:09AM (7/28/2009)
yea snag films is THE WORST place to watch movies. Exiting full screen during commercials? Commercials every 3-5 minutes?
they arent going to last
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CPU 6:30AM (7/28/2009)
Hmmmm, I see what you mean meshies..... It's not available/working. Grrrrrr! LOL!!
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dukeisduke 10:38AM (7/28/2009)
http://client.itg.ti.com/hardware/wlan/peap/wzc/howto/WPA_Security_350.shtm
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D Fisk 11:48AM (7/28/2009)
He got screwed buy the chicoms. But look what happend chrysler went broke.
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meshies 12:55PM (7/28/2009)
Snag movies aside it was a great flick. THUMBS UP.
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LennyQ 8:03PM (7/31/2009)
You can watch it on hulu!
http://www.hulu.com/watch/85122/the-entrepreneur
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