37 Signals is one of Chicago’s best start-up stories and one of the most prominent, internationally. Their business model is building work productivity web apps, like project management tool Basecamp and contact management tool Highrise. A “freemium” business, 37 Signals offers basic service from their apps for free while charging monthly subscription fees for larger service offerings. They also dip their toe into revenue streams from advertising and even a book on their project management/development philosophy.

You may see a re-occurring theme of Chicago tech start-ups using open source development tools. 37 Signals doesn’t just use open source tools, the Ruby on Rails framework so popular with open source developers spun out of 37 Signals (they’re arguably more famous for their affiliation with Ruby on Rails than for their very popular web apps). (more…)

RecipeComparison is a bit of an odd duck in the Chicago tech community. Content sites have never been as celebrated here as other places, but Recipe Comparison also wears the hat of a data aggregation portal. Link blogging you see enough of, actually classifying and sorting data, not so much. And, in what continues to be a running thread, Recipe Comparison is another boostrapped site built on free/open source software without outside funding. We had an opportunity to converse with co-founder and CEO, Tom Carter (no, not the Bears cornerback from ‘97-’99, the other Tom Carter). (more…)