Moonlighting His Way to the Top: How this KC Entrepreneur Does It All

WRITTEN BY ALLISON WAY, SENIOR COPYWRITER & CHIEF EDITOR

Kansas City-bred entrepreneur Chris Morris is what we like to call a “moonlighter”.  Moonlighting, as defined by Wikipedia, is the practice of holding a secondary job in addition to one’s main job.  But Chris Morris is doing more than just moonlighting—he’s moonlighting a few times over.

Morris is a service catalog administrator at HNTB by day, but a serial entrepreneur by night.  In the little free time that he has, he enjoys working on his newest entrepreneurial venture, Instantly.in.

Instantly.in is a Twitter loyalty program that allows users to check-in on Twitter without the hassle of downloading apps like Foursquare.  Instantly.in can also be utilized by people without smartphones.

As co-founder and developer for Instantly.in, Chris has been interested in developing new businesses since he can remember.  But it wasn’t until one special Thaisday (Chris always gets Thai on Tuesdays with his coworkers and partners) where he met Michael Gelphman of KCITP.  After that meeting, Chris decided to partake in Startup Weekend and had the opportunity to spend 54 straight hours working intensely on Instantly.in.

“I got great feedback at Startup Weekend,” said Chris.  “It was a blast.  I met cool people and the experience kick-started going back to working on Instantly.in.  I would love to do it again.”

Chris enjoys moonlighting and keeps himself busy with Instantly.in, HNTB, other entrepreneurial ventures, classes at JCCC and judo.  But according to Chris, finding the time for all of these interests isn’t all fun and games.  Moonlighting fills up an entire day, which can be extremely exhausting.  But what’s the hardest part for Chris?

“I’m doing so much!  I don’t have to be busy, I just want to get a lot done,” he says.  “The hardest part is the start and the finish.  Not having dedicated time for the business is challenging, but this is my year to get things up and going and eventually finished.” 

Get great tips on how to moonlight effectively from Think Big Partners! Dancing in the Moonlight: Happiness While Holding Two Jobs at Once

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