A sip of champagne

Reposted from my other blog:

I  can't remember where I read it, but a few months ago I was struck by an essay admonishing entrepreneurs for "saving all their champagne" for the end of a project, for that mythical day when the "Mission Accomplished" sign is hung. People can only think long-term for so long, and they need to celebrate important milestones along the way, with a metaphoric sip of champagne.

Today is a HUGE milestone for us. After I finish this post, I am signing Pegasus News Inc's first-ever payroll checks. We've occasionally thrown our hardest workers a (very) little bonus as a thank-you, but these are real, honest-to god, regular paychecks complete with witholding and the promise that in two weeks there will be a sequel.

They're still well under-market, but they put us in an entirely different mental place. Yesterday, we were a rag-tag team of volunteers. Today, we're a company.

My partners, Gary and Kevin, have been working full-time since April, 2005 without pay. And many others on our team -- Alan, Blair, Chris, Laura E, Laura S, Todd -- have been working nearly as long.

I was interviewing an ad rep candidate the other day who asked about whether or not we have a good work environment. I told her to look out into the office bullpen and see ten people who have been working a year without pay. That's the only answer I felt she needed.

Today certainly is not the biggest day our company will ever have. The day we launch Pegasus News this November will be bigger. And the day we figure out how to make our first monthly profit will be far bigger. But today is a big one for us. There's never been a time in my career or a team I've worked with of which I've been so proud.

Don't expect a lot of site updates this afternoon, as we'll be taking some time for a well-deserved "sip of champagne." Well, more literally a gulp of tequila -- but we're in Dallas, so same difference.

My personal thanks to everyone who got us this far, and especially to those who stuck with us when we were well past our freshness date. There's more to come.