LAKEVIEW — They say the first year is the hardest, but for the co-owners of BuildThis, it's been a pretty sweet ride.
Since last April, the Web development shop has tripled its staff and opened a brick-and-mortar location at 3240 N. Sheffield Ave. They've built 53 e-commerce websites and eight mobile applications — including a polling Web app and a website for Chicago-based recycling company Alpha Metals — and their clients stretch from San Francisco to Maine.
"Working in the industry and doing all this stuff, it feels like chew-you-up-and-spit-you-out kind of work. You're always on call, always on the clock. It really felt like a grind, and we wanted to do our own thing," said CEO Shane Higginbotham.
Higginbotham and his college roommate Sean Neilan, who both graduated from DePaul University, launched BuildThis last year with the idea to offer customers a website development company focused on the actual development, rather than the business or design.
"Seventy percent of our company is tech. We're very development-heavy, and that's what we're great at. If you want something built right — something cool that's never been done before — you come to BuildThis," Higginbotham said.
After a couple of months working from home, BuildThis switched to an office it shared with a publication company. But as the company grew, Higginbotham and Neilan realized they needed their own space.
"Going full-time in an office environment definitely helped, because it was harder at least for myself and Sean to focus on work. But eventually we needed double the size, because we were elbow-to-elbow," Higginbotham said.
Having their own space meant employees had room to work, and the company had room to grow. Slowly, the BuildThis office developed character, with metal art installations and a chalkboard wall adding personality.
"When you have your own office space, it becomes a bigger platform and forum to push out more brand identity. It was amazing to move in and see it get to a sense where we have an image, which manifested almost unconsciously," said Garrick Schmitt, director of marketing and sales.
BuildThis offers everything from basic website development and design to Web applications, mobile apps and research and marketing. For its second year, the team hopes to redesign its own website and further solidify its brand.
"We're building up our portfolio and identity. Now it's time to get to work on the even bigger stuff — larger and larger projects we can really just have fun with," Higginbotham said.
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