Kennedy-Spaien, Dot Com

Grasshopper New Media is an unfunded startup. Mostly we’re “doing it for love”, and by that I mean because we really enjoy it AND we hope to pay the bills from it as well - someday. There is at least one Grasshopper at GNMHealth who has been able to quit his day job, and that is certainly encouraging.

That Grasshopper is not me, however.

As chief cook and bottle washer at GNMHealth, I have had to learn to do things on the cheap, and there has never been a better time to do that. The internet is chock full of “free as in beer” goods and services, but there is still a lot that has to be done by a living breathing human (thank god!).

The money that has gone into GNM infrastructure has largely come from Chris and Ben. The primary investments I have been making at GNMHealth are in terms of time and effort. On show nights, I am lucky to get over three hours of sleep (currently three nights per week, soon to be four). Over time, that can spur all kinds of bad juju. And yet, I feel like I can’t really complain because I get to work with amazing people whom I really respect. Also, there are people in this space whom I admire very much who can’t afford a cup of coffee.

This morning on my way in to my day gig, I threw my packed lunch into the garbage by mistake. Earlier I was crabby with my wife and even raised my voice at my kid. Oy vey. Sleep dep is no longer amusing!

The thing that made me take start to doubt the wisdom of using my time as a proxy for money, was the fact that no matter how late I stay up, staying up won’t give me the magical ability to pay for one of my rockstars to fly to VON in California this month.

Justin asked if depression begets financial troubles or vice versa. I am wondering if lack of sleep is the cause or the result of having more to do in a day than I can pull off.

So yes, my head is swimming, but on the other hand this isn’t really a complaint, merely an observation.