5 TV series that will bring out the entrepreneur in you

No matter how many books you read on starting your own business and being a successful entrepreneur, there’s nothing like a visual guide to help you embark on this journey. Recent years have seen an onslaught of popular television series revolving around startups and entrepreneurship that are making it to every young entrepreneur’s ‘must watch’ list. So we thought we’d give into the practice and come up with our own. So here’s presenting a list of some great TV shows which will bring out the entrepreneur in you.

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TVF Pitchers

Released in 2015, this series literally became a 'viral fever' since it was the first time on Indian Television that a Drama-Comedy series had its primary theme as entrepreneurship. The show revolves around four young men who work typical corporate desk jobs – the standard nine to five hours, one-thirty lunchbreaks followed by a smoke only to come back to their tiny cubicles and work on the same code or report for the next five hours again. The show grabbed substantial attention right from its pilot episode when the protagonist, Naveen, gets super drunk and calls up his boss in the middle of the night and quits his job. He wakes up the next morning, freaking out. But, luck is on his side because an idea that he has been brewing for the past couple of months, with his two closest friends, falls through. A series of ups and downs follow. Naveen convinces his friends to leave their stable corporate jobs, they dodge investors who try blindsiding them, create the perfect software and harbour ego-clashes and friendships – in short, everything that a first-time startup founder is bound to experience. With its ridiculously humorous one-liners and equally comic characters, TVF Pitchers is a must watch for any first-time entrepreneur.

Silicon Valley

Although you fell in love with Martyn Burke’s Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999), that’s not the one we’re talking about here. Silicon Valley, a TV series released in 2014 that is fast approaching the limelight is a comedy series that showcases the inner workings of life in the Silicon Valley. The show revolves around six young men who co-found a startup company amidst the heavy competition in the Mecca of the Business World. Three seasons of this invigorating series are out while the fourth is set to air in 2017.

Startup

This series, starring Adam Brody and Martin Freeman, is set to be released later this year, and just its cast is enough to excite anyone! It’s unique and interesting concept makes it stands out from its contemporaries. In this show, a banker from Brooklyn, a Haitian gang lord and a Cuban hacker put their heads together to raise a potential multi-billion dollar business on ‘digital currency’, that could revolutionise the future of money itself. Can’t wait? Neither can we!

How I made my Millions

A CNBC original, this show leads you to the greenroom of the business world, where after the curtain fall, the biggest businessmen and women reveal how they took ordinary ideas and turned them into extraordinary businesses. Most of these center around businesses that have crossed the $1 million mark. Aired in 2011, How I made my millions showcases the typical ‘American Dream’ and tries to show that if you have the idea, the resources and the willpower, you can make things happen.

The Profit

This much-watched series shows that being a successful entrepreneur isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. It broadcasts the raw, challenging and often ugly side of starting your own business. The show revolves real-life businessman Marcus Lemonis, one of the biggest sharks of the business world and his decision to invest money into struggling companies and turn them into highly profitable entities in returns for a percentage of both business and profit. It is a great in-depth lesson for all entrepreneurs, as the first part of the show a tutorial of sorts where they show you what NOT to do as an entrepreneur. The motto of the show emphasises the three P’s – People, Process and Product – the triangular mantra of success for any startup founder and members.

So if you’re convinced by our choice, then go ahead and learn the tricks of the trade through these highly entertaining and even educational shows. Go and binge watch now, and let us know what you think of them.