Right. To make more product (in this case, a cooking show), I need to hire people and equipment. there are limits to what's possible with energy and good will alone, and asking people to intern or work for equity on mission-critical tasks (rather than strategy) is often a false economy. At present I'm arguing that we're budgeting too much on sales and promotion (although it's very important) and not enough for the actual production costs.

Not unlike coding, there's an unfortunate perception that enthusiastic and creative people are worth less than the revenue specialists. There's a reason for the stereotype of the sales guy who makes 10x more than the engineer who delivers a functional, reliable product :-/