8 Best TV Series on Startups (in 2025)

A successful founder eats, sleeps, and breaths startups. That means, not just building your own startup, but also talking to other founders, attending events, reading books on entrepreneurship, listening to podcasts, and even watching series on startups.

Here are the 8 best TV series you should watch if you are an entrepreneur into startups (2025 edition). Dive into these series if you want to get inspired to hack together a MVP, build a bootstrapped startup, or grow the next big unicorn.

An absolute classic that holds up so well. A ton of fun references and relatable situation if you are building a startup. As they used real people from the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem when writing the script - it's scary accurate.

10/10 recommended watch. It can get cheesy at times, but this is one of the few series I can re-watch and reference years after. It covers the journey from ideating in an incubator, the startup ecosystem, raising funds, talking to VCs, competing with large corporations, and eventually building a massive venture. The highs and lows of the entrepreneurial journey in 6 seasons.

Year: 2014 - 2019

IMDB Score: 8.5

Where to watch: HBO

Check out Silicon Valley on IMDB.

At first sight a weird mix of a desperate banker, a gang lord, and a hacker - forced together to work on a startup to survive. However, this turned out to be a very action filled and dynamic plot. And hard to stop watching.

Not based on a true story, and at times a bit unrealistic. But fun entertainment.

Year: 2016 - 2018

IMDB Score: 7.8

Where to watch: Prime Video

Check out StartUp on IMDB.

A founder duo hacking together a startup in the Berlin tech scene - featuring the classical founder duo dynamic with a super visionary CEO vs. more grounded CTO. With references to Apple and Steve Jobs. Also, with legal battles, betrayal, and lots of highs and lows fighting the big corporations - trying to survive.

Year: 2021

IMDB Score: 8.0

Where to watch: Netflix

Check out The Billion Dollar Code on IMDB.

At one point The Pirate Bay was responsible for 40% of the Internet traffic in the entire world, and slowed down the Internet speed worldwide due to their massive data load.

This is the founding story of The Pirate Bay, based on the real story. How the founders fought for a free Internet, build their own server halls, and learned to trust no one. In the meantime, building the largest business and movements around file sharing in the world.

The series also raises some ethical dilemmas around file sharing and copyright. Also, we get to follow the founders' journey as revolutionary newly graduates battling the biggest corporations in the world - using and fighting against legislation.

Year: 2024

IMDB Score: 6.8

Where to watch: SVT Play

Check out The Pirate Bay on IMDB.

The story based on the reality of WeWork's explosive growth journey to a billion dollar valuation - and ultimately the downfall, when growing at all costs does not hold up anymore.

We get to follow the founder Adam Neumann - a man possessing the power to make others believe in his visions, and go above and beyond to make them a reality. Threading the line of ethics - where lies, empty promises, and manipulation is part of Adam's founder handbook.

An entertaining journey of hyper growth - and how Adam went from being a door-to-door salesman to one of the most powerful businessmen in no time. Also, a story of how huge risk taking can both lead to fast growth, and a quick downfall.

Profitability is not something Adam likes to think about. And I'm pretty sure Adam has read (maybe even ghost-written) The 48 Laws of Power.

Year: 2022

IMDB Score: 7.3

Where to watch: Apple TV+

Check out WeCrashed on IMDB.

One of the better (more accurate) series on hacking and tech companies. With ex-FBI people as consultants to write the script.

This is not really a startup series, but it's a really awesome watch. With a startup hacker mentality, we get to follow Elliot a cybersecurity engineer and hacker in his way to fight the big guys - Evil Corp.

IMO this series starts off great, but spins out towards the later seasons - and becomes quite psychotic.

Year: 2015 - 2019

IMDB Score: 8.5

Where to watch: Prime Video

Check out Mr. Robot on IMDB.

The story of Swedish tech mega entrepreneur Daniel Ek, and how he revolutionized the music industry growing Spotify - the biggest music streaming service in the world.

Spotify has grown in an extremely difficult legal space (with copyright issues, etc). They leapfrogged online piracy, when they launched their music streaming service - making it so easy to use, that people stopped illegally downloading music. And growing a unicorn in the process. This, ties nicely together with The Pirate Bay series.

A quite entertaining series, that can definitely be binged-watched. Each episode dedicates itself to one of the people who were essential to Spotify's success. You get to follow the different points of view when growing the company. And how they often look very differently, if you ask the CTO, CEO, Head of Legal, etc.

Year: 2022

IMDB Score: 7.4

Where to watch: Netflix

Check out The Playlist on IMDB.

The entrepreneurial jet set and the criminal world of an aspiring business woman with mob ties. This is a startup related series - but more focused around the gang violence and underworld of Stockholm, Sweden. Dirty money, investors and loyalty that is put to the test.

Quite the brutal and chaotic series - but a thrilling watch if you are up for the ride. I didn't care for the second season, but the first one was great.

Year: 2021

IMDB Score: 7.6

Where to watch: Netflix

Check out Snabba Cash on IMDB.

As a a SaaS founder, watching series is a great way to kick back and relax. It is important to think about other things than startups and entrepreneurship sometimes. But, obsessing over it (in periods) will lead to great things and you will end up learning a ton.

Remember - don't mask consuming content as work. Watching a movie, a youtube video, attending a startup event, or listening to a podcast, will NOT in itself move the needle for your startup. You need to put in the practical grind. But it might give you an extra boost those days when you need it. At least, it has worked for me. So it might for you as well.

If you have any tips of series that should be included in the list - shoot me them in a DM on LinkedIn.

Also, I'm building my own B2B SaaS startup, and sharing my journey in public. So, if you are into B2B SaaS and growth - check out my newsletter and Youtube channel down below.