Editor’s Note: Billy Warden is a writer, marketing exec and multimedia producer based in the Research Triangle, where he co-founded the p.r. agency GBW Strategies.  He’s now a regular contributor to WRAL TechWire. His columns appear on Mondays. 

When you want cinema that sums up entrepreneurship in all its ragged glory, who you gonna call?

“Stripes”! And, yeah, “Ghostbusters,” too. Both shaggy comedies sprung from the fun house imagination of director Ivan Reitman, who died earlier this month.

Sure, “The Social Network” with its angsty acting and moody lighting snagged all the Academy Awards. But it’s Reitman’s back-to-back early ‘80s hits that seem to have set the template for a certain era of entrepreneurs, specifically the early ‘aughts.

The kinship was clear when I switched from a retrospective on Reitman to a teaser for the upcoming HBO series “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.”

In the “Pumped” trailer we get lots of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Uber founder Travis Kalanick. He’s brash, he’s anti-authority, he’s … heck, he’s kind of Bill Murray as the brash pseudo-scientist in “Ghostbusters” and the snarky soldier in “Stripes.” We even glimpse Kalanick going all-in on a pep rally speech a la Murray’s call-to-arms in “Stripes.”

Pixabay image of Ghostbusters logo

Meantime, disapproving Establishment figures shake their heads. In “Super Pumped,” it’s various regulators, plus the “Friday Night Lights” coach, Kyle Chandler, as an appalled investor. Smartly dressed, impressively coiffed and always frowning, they’re the prim foils to the more dynamic Kalanick. Essentially they’re in the roles played by the scowling government hack in “Ghostbusters” and glowering Sgt. Hulka in “Stripes.”

The stage is set for the rollicking tale of how an iconoclastic top dog leads his misfit pack to run rings around a humorless, unimaginative Establishment and not only save the day, but throw a killer party. At least, that’s the way Reitman would have spun the story. The Uber saga will be darker and angrier – making “Ghostbuster”’s marauding ghouls seem positively Mister Roger-ly.

Still, Reitman’s oeuvre both captures the 1970s from-the-garage ethos of early Apple and Microsoft and presages the swaggering entrepreneurial mythos of the 2000s tech boom. WeWork CEO Adam Neumann’s policy of unlimited beer for employees was totally a Bill Murray move.

As a final tip of the hat to the director, here are four lessons entrepreneurs can take from Reitman’s reels.

Follow your freakiness

The three original Ghostbusters – Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) – go charging into the business of capturing pesky poltergeists. In response, the world … shrugs. The phone doesn’t ring. The bills pile up.

But the trio believes they’re onto something. Rather than switching over to the proven and crowded field exterminating roaches, they stick with ghosts.

The lawless legion in “Stripes” aren’t following an offbeat business plan per se, but they are on a quixotic quest to live large in the notoriously tight confines of the U.S. military.

Rally your rag tag team

Though the Ghostbusters often seem to get on each other’s nerves, they each bring a particular expertise to the business. A recognition of how they fit together ultimately creates the esprit de corp that leads to victory.

The “Stripes” crew that takes on the Soviet empire is even more motley; the group dynamic even more fraught. But they do their best with what they’ve got – and discover latent talents.
Entrepreneurs looking to build a team while going up against much bigger companies with way deeper pockets may attract some offbeat characters. That’s OK. Embrace eccentricity and turn it into winning energy.

Expect pushback

The government tries to lock up the Ghostbusters. The military chain of command makes life hell for the “Stripes” G.I.s. In both cases, our heroes seem surprised. But entrepreneurs would be wise to expect plenty of pushback – and to be ready to push through it.

Relish the reward

Both “Ghostbusters” and “Stripes” close with the oddballs peacocking triumphantly as one-time skeptics swoon and cheer.  They’ve slayed supernatural fiends, bureaucrats and heavily armed Soviets. Not to mention the box office.

Reitman’s heroes make no bones about savoring each success, and neither should you. ‘Going mainstream’ on your own terms is the goal. Just look at Reitman. Early in his career, he helped whip up 1978’s seminal “Animal House” and wanted to direct it. But the studio insisted on a more experienced hand. Reitman responded to this rebuff by directing the scrappy hits discussed here (plus “Meatballs”), and from then on was able to write his own ticket.

As Murray exalts in “Ghostbusters,” “We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!”