5 Documentaries Every Tech Founder Should Watch

Choosing something to watch on Netflix can be a tiresome job – particularly when you’re working hard full-time to build your own business from the ground up. It is all too easy to re-watch your favourite shows and neglect some mind-blowing series for the sake of ease.

However, Netflix has an outstanding collection of documentaries on technology and science that are directed to inspire, captivate and take you on a journey through tech.

Over a plate of food at the end of a long day, you could gain new insight into AI, 3D Printing or data, all without leaving the sofa. Here are 5 documentaries that allow you to do just that:

1. Coded Bias

2020, 1h 25m

Coded Bias follows the research of Joy Buolamwini, a PHD candidate at MIT, and her journey of exposing the flaws in today’s algorithms. After Buolamwini’s own class project revealed to her that she, as a black woman, was more recognisable to an algorithm while wearing a white mask, Buolamwini directed her research into other algorithmic biases that have been controlling our everyday lives and are being used by Big Tech companies, such as Amazon.

Through interviews with industry experts such as Meredith Brousard and Cathy O’Neil, Buolamwini and her colleagues will leave you stunned at the unregulated nature of algorithms, and the role they play as “the invisible gatekeeper”. 

2. The Social Dilemma

2020, 1h 34m

The Social Dilemma exposes ethical issues within social networking with ferocity. Tech experts, former Big Tech employees and algorithm creators unveil how technology within social media is actively threatening our mental health, democracy and encouraging discrimination. Described as a “documentary-drama hybrid”, it is an intense and stomach-turning watch as social media’s brain-washing technologies are revealed. 

You will not want to look at your phone afterwards.

3. The Great Hack

2019, 1h 54m

Netflix puts the biggest data scandal of the millennium under a microscope in The Great Hack, exploring Cambridge Analytica’s role in the 2016 U.S presidential election. Packed with dizzying infographics, The Great Hack journeys through the rise and fall of the political consultancy firm and shines a spotlight on the people taking on big data marketing. It’s a disturbing and enthralling watch, and a reminder of the dark side of data. 

4. The Mars Generation

2017, 1h 37m

If you are looking for a feel-good documentary to ignite your child-like passion and hope then The Mars Generation is an easy watch. The documentary follows a space-obsessed group of teenagers during their time at Nasa Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Without getting too technical, the documentary offers insights from popular physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye (The Science Guy) on the future of space travel and getting astronauts to Mars. 

The documentary looks to space with child-like inspiration. It’s all about how the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of the next generation will take us to the red planet. 

5. Print the Legend 

2014, 1h 39m

Following startups MakerBot Industries and Formlabs, Print the Legend takes you back in time to the origins of 3D printing technology, which is now being used to build rockets taking payloads to space, amongst other things.

The documentary is layered with betrayal, controversy and struggles for funding familiar to the initial challenges of many startups competing to be industry leaders (you can read more about these common challenges here). 

Once you’ve watched these shows you’ll be both informed on the latest in tech and ready to start the week refreshed and rearing to keep building your business. Speaking of, have you checked out Floww’s funding features yet?

We assist in scaling your startup through streamlining data management, helping you connect with investors in a few short clicks and providing you with the tools you need to grow.

Header Image: The Great Hack via Netflix.