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Son of Wrestler Portrayed in “Foxcatcher” Reflects on Movie, New Startup

Alexander Schultz, son of Dave Schultz, whose story was portrayed by Mark Ruffalo in the Oscar-nominated movie "Foxcatcher," talked movies and tech with NBC Bay Area last week.

Schultz is a budding tech entrepreneur living in San Francisco.

Dave Schultz was an Olympic World Champion wrestler who was murdered by his wrestling sponsor John duPont in 1996. His story was once again in the spotlight this year with the release of  "Foxcatcher." Steve Carell played duPont in the movie.

Schultz has watched the film about his father’s life five times.

“Anytime you have someone tell your story, it’s kind of out of your hands. The most important thing is that they get the bullet points right for the characters,” Schultz said of the movie.

In general, he thinks Hollywood did well with his family story.

(Left)Young Alexander Schultz with his dad Dave Schultz (Right)Alexander Schultz with Mark Ruffalo who portrayed Schultz's father in the movie "Foxcatcher."

“The movie is extremely well done and each actor embodies their real life counterpart to an incredible degree," Schultz said. "Some liberties are taken with the timeline, but that's understandable given the short period of time they have to tell a pretty complex story.”

Schultz has a pretty complex story to tell as well: the murder that audiences are watching at movie theaters was the backdrop to his childhood.

After his father’s murder, Schultz (who was nine at the time) moved from the DuPont Estate where his family lived to Foster City.

Schultz attended San Mateo High School, but eventually dropped out. Shaken by his father’s death, Schultz took a while to get back on track academically. Eventually, he completed his GED, attended community college and transferred to USF.

Today, Schultz is a part of the Bay Area tech scene. He is CEO and co-founder of an app called Complete which aims to use social media to help people achieve their goals. Schultz explained that much of the conversation he saw on social media was oriented around what people had already done.

“If we shifted the conversation to what you’re going to do, we can start collaborating,” he said. “We didn't just want to make a social network and say 'now talk about the future.' So we leveraged a habit nearly everyone has, writing down to-do's.”

This social to-do app syncs with social media accounts where friends can offer recommendations and support for goals. Schultz has used his app for crowdsourcing feedback often, from date ideas to hiring advice.

He even made a Complete post to commemorate his interview with NBC Bay Area.

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