For the most part, the startup companies we represent fit into the tech category in one flavor or other, whether its internet, mobile, cleantech, life sciences, etc.  But like the VCs, we follow the entrepreneurs.  So despite Foley Hoag not being a Hollywood power house, when a great entrepreneur, Marc Fienberg, had the crazy idea that despite having no Hollywood connections he was going to take a script he wrote and somehow manage to start his own production company, raise the money needed to produce the film himself as a first time writer/director/producer, attract top actors and actresses and actually make it happen, I happily signed on.  The culmination of all that happens this weekend when Play the Game, starring Andy Griffith, Paul Campbell, Liz Sheridan, Doris Roberts and Marla Sokolov opens in select cities nationwide today, August 28, including in the Boston area (Kendall Square, West Newton and South Dennis).  I had no idea how long it would take and how much fun it would be along the way...

I first met Marc at an MIT Enterprise Forum event many years ago.  We had a lot in common besides first names (for example, both of us are married to Biochemistry PhDs).  The line between when he became a client and when he became a good friend is somewhat blurry.  When we first started working together, there was actually a software startup idea he had in mind, which fit the Foley Hoag model to a T (I don't think I could have convinced my intake committee to let me do it if it started as just a film company).  Suffice it to say, the software company didn't work out, but Marc's real passion was to make movies, and like many entrepreneurs (and, unfortunately, unlike many non-entrepreneurs) he decided to follow his dream and make it happen.  Like any good MBA, he had a detailed business and marketing plan for why this movie in particular could be a business success and not just a pipe dream.  There were many adventures along the way, including various angel investors who we thought would work out but didn't, leading actors who were attached and had to back out, and the crew unionizing on the first week of filming (and while I was out on vacation at Disney World no less, trying to get some emergency advice from some of our labor lawyers). 

Better journalists than I did a good write up of the entrepreneurial story in Business Week.  Its a story like many entrepreneurial stories of passion and persistence.  We did a pre-screening at the firm a couple weeks ago and I can tell you that the room was full of laugh out loud laughter.  This is not your typical independent film-- it is very commercial and has broad audience appeal (check out the trailer and "Dancing Grandpa").  So if you are looking for something fun to do this weekend, go see Play the Game.  Do it because you like movies and want to be entertained, but know that you are supporting entrepreneurship as well when you do it. 

P.S. If you do go see it, stay through until the end of the credits, not just because my name appears, but because there is one last joke at the end.