Alumni Indie Drama Depicts Cornellian Couple’s Role in Web History Stories You May Like How Much Do You Know About Cornellians in the Movies? Cornell Cinema Still Lights Up the Silver Screen For a Veteran Hollywood Scout, it’s All About ‘Location, Location’ Set in the 1980s, The Man Who Saved the Internet with a Sunflower chronicles two ’69 classmates in Silicon Valley By Melissa Newcomb Sitting in the passenger seat, Terry Wehe Ryan ’69 grabs the steering wheel and veers the car off to the side of a country road. Her husband, Rob Ryan ’69, has just broken the news that he’s firing her from their tech startup—so he can afford to keep another female employee on the payroll. It’s a scene dramatic enough to be in a movie—which is exactly where it appears. Titled The Man Who Saved the Internet with a Sunflower, the independent film depicts the personal and professional lives of the Cornellian couple (who remain happily together to this day, after 55 years of marriage)—focusing on the role Rob played in producing some of the Web’s early critical infrastructure. “Think of the possibilities if people were better connected,” the actor portraying Rob tells his team in one scene. “They could work from home instead of going to an office; they could buy goods on their computer without having to drive all the way to the store.” The drama—which is not yet available to stream but has played at numerous film festivals—begins its tale in 1983. The movie poster. Having become persona non grata in Silicon Valley due to clashes with management at a previous job, Rob is desperate for work. With Terry’s encouragement, he eventually founds his own company, Ascend Communications, whose three initial employees work out of the couple’s living room. At a key juncture for the firm, with investors threatening to bail, Rob saves the day by coining a management concept he dubs the Sunflower Code. Think of the possibilities if people were better connected. Rob Ryan ’69 in the film The methodology—whose name refers to the flower’s structure, with a large center surrounded by many petals—helps the company define its core and ancillary products and market sectors. (The title refers to the idea that the Sunflower concept therefore paved the way for Ascend to play its key role in the nascent Internet.) “Rob made a big change to our whole world, and nobody really knows about it,” says Ori Yardeni, the film’s director and co-writer. “That’s a simple but good reason to make a movie.” The film depicts the founding days of the couple's start-up. Shot in Serbia with British actors in the leading roles, Yardeni’s film takes viewers back to an era when the “World Wide Web” was seen by many as a niche interest. As one character puts it: “The Web is just for those few geeks trying to play lousy video games.” Among the tumult the movie depicts is Rob’s decision to retain a key employee—the female engineer at the center of that argument in the car—while laying off Terry, an attorney and the firm’s cofounder. The Ryans on their wedding day in 1969 and in the mid ’70s. Stories You May Like How Much Do You Know About Cornellians in the Movies? Cornell Cinema Still Lights Up the Silver Screen And like so many Silicon Valley founders before and since: heart-wrenchingly, Rob is ultimately voted out as CEO of his own firm. The film’s dramatic low point, the ouster is engineered by a colleague—hired on the recommendation of a trusted board member—while Rob is in the hospital recovering from an injury. Reflecting on attending the film's premiere (held at Hollywood’s famed Chinese Theatre in June 2024), Rob says he had mixed feelings at revisiting those chapters of his life as depicted onscreen. “Seeing all the different betrayals brought back the exact emotions that had occurred in real time,” he says. The actors portraying Rob and Terry (at right) Zoom with their real-life counterparts. (Another striking factor for him: “The actor who played me looks like I did many years ago.”) Ascend made headlines in 1999, when Lucent Technologies acquired it for some $23 billion—in what was then one of the nation’s largest tech mergers. Now based in Montana, the Ryans—both Arts & Sciences alums—run a consulting firm, Entrepreneur America, that employs principles based on the Sunflower Code. “A true entrepreneur is someone who stumbled several times and had to get up and dust themselves off and not give up,” says Terry. “It’s a resilience test—and we really emphasize that in the movie.” A true entrepreneur is someone who stumbled several times and had to get up and dust themselves off and not give up. Terry Wehe Ryan ’69 Rob, who has guest lectured at the Johnson School of Management, was named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002. That same year, Cornell University Press published his management guide, Smartups: Lessons from Rob Ryan’s Entrepreneur America Boot Camp for Start-Ups. The movie has played at indie film festivals in NYC, Houston, Chicago, and elsewhere—winning the audience choice award for best narrative feature at L.A.’s Dances with Films. Yardeni hopes it will debut on a streaming service in 2025. “The Man Who Saved the Internet with a Sunflower may have a larger-than-life title,” says a review in Film Threat, “but it is that big and unusual a story.” Top: A scene from the film. (All images provided.) Published September 17, 2024 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Alumni Chris Pavone ’89 Pens Globe-Trotting Tales Packed with Twists and Turns Cornelliana Decades Ago, Avid Photographer Captured Campus Life on Film Ask the Expert What’s Up with Pickleball?