The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well on the Chicago tech front. And rather than pleading their case to venture capital firms, many internet entrepreneurs are doing it the old-fashioned way – they’re putting their own “bank” on the line.

The Chicago Tribune’s Wailin Wong recently wrote about how some local upstart tech companies are “bootstrapping” it – forgoing the alluring smell of other people’s money, and instead making or breaking it on their own.

She joins us to talk about this, the ever-shrinking lifespan of the internet meme, and the ever-shrinking lifeline of the one-time smartphone king, Research in Motion.