77 neighborhoods. One roster.
Chicago is not one city. It is 77 community areas stitched together by train lines, and every one of them swears its corner spot is the best in town. SIGNL is forming its Chicago founding roster now: creators who post their own neighborhood like it matters, because here it does, and businesses ready to comp them.
The post is the job.
SIGNL is free for creators. Always. Businesses pay the platform. You never pay to join, to list, or to get booked.
Comp visits are the core. Paid bookings sit on top: set your own rate, the business pays it, and the platform fee is 6 percent total, split evenly, so you keep 97 percent of your rate. Paid bookings are held by SIGNL until your post is live. Headliners (15,000+ followers) are also first in line for featured paid campaigns when businesses run them.
A city of neighborhoods
Neighborhood is identity
Logan Square, Pilsen, Wicker Park, Hyde Park: Chicagoans introduce themselves by neighborhood. A post from a real local lands differently than any citywide ad ever will.
The tavern-style truth
Deep dish is for visitors and special occasions. The everyday Chicago pizza is tavern-style: thin, crackery, cut in squares, ordered at the corner tavern. Creators who know that are the ones Chicago trusts.
Lakefront seasons
The city runs on seasons: patio season, festival season, then the long winter when the neighborhood tavern earns its keep. There is a real post in every one of them.
Corner-spot culture
The Italian beef stand, the hot dog done right with no ketchup in sight, the BYOB on the corner: Chicago's food landmarks are small, local and fiercely defended by the people who live near them.
How it works for Chicago creators
Claim your founding spot
Sign up free with Chicago as your market and finish your profile: your handles, your neighborhood, what you post about. Founding creators are reviewed in sign-up order, and your tier is set automatically by your total audience.
Go be a customer
Show up, redeem the comp in the app, and experience the business for real. Bring a guest when the offer covers two.
Post within 48 hours
The Standard Visit: 1 post or reel plus 1 story that shares the post, posted to a 48-hour standard with a week as the outside limit, honest and clearly disclosed as comped. The platform tracks the post, so the business gets proof and you get credit for the visit.
Your neighborhood, comped
Comps run across the city: tavern-style pizza joints, Italian beef and hot dog stands, BYOB tables, Pilsen taquerias, breweries along the Milwaukee Avenue corridor, salons, barbershops and gyms. Post your corner of Chicago like you mean it.
Students count here. If you are at DePaul, UChicago, Loyola, UIC, Columbia College or Northwestern in Evanston, name your school when you sign up or finish your profile: your profile carries your campus, so businesses near your school can find you first. A Standard Visit fits between classes, and alcohol offers are 21+ only.
Where do you land?
Tiers are set automatically by your total audience across platforms, and they rise as you grow. A small, genuinely local audience beats a big, scattered one.
- Everyday people with a local following
- Comp visits, and paid bookings at your own rate
- Perfect first step into local posting
- Regular local posters, the roster's sweet spot
- Comp visits, and paid bookings at your own rate
- Priority access to new businesses
- Established local creators
- Comp visits, and paid bookings at your own rate
- First pick of grand openings and launches
Under 500 followers, or just starting out? Apply anyway. Your tier is set by your follower count, and it moves up as you grow. What matters most is not the number, it's that your audience is actually local and actually engages. Nobody picks their own band.
Chicago businesses: your neighborhood is the market
Nobody crosses Chicago for dinner on a stranger's say-so. They go where their own neighborhood points them. Founding businesses get pointed to by the creators their neighbors already follow: comped at your cost, posting honestly, tracked end to end.
Ads reach everyone except the people who live nearby. SIGNL puts Chicago creators who live here inside your business, posting to neighbors who can walk in this week.
Join the founding business list
Apply in a few minutes. Your category spot in your trade area is held in application order, and nothing is charged today.
Founding pricing, held for you
$199 a month for Self-Service (up to 5 creator visits a month, about $40 per creator visit), $349 a month for Growth (up to 10 creator visits a month, about $35 per creator visit) or $699 a month for Managed (up to 20 creator visits a month), with a 3-month minimum and then month to month. Founding businesses get $100 off the first month. Visits you don't use roll into the next month, then expire. The only other cost is the comp the business chooses to offer, provided at its cost, not retail. Founding businesses keep founding pricing while they remain subscribed, and the plan begins when the Chicago market opens.
Activate when Chicago opens
Pick creators from the founding roster, offer a comp at your cost, and get honest, tracked posts delivered in 48 hours* of each visit.
*Creators have up to one week to post. 48 hours is the standard they are held to, and hitting it earns their Momentum. If a week passes with no post, the visit is replaced and does not count against your plan.
If a booked creator does not show up or does not post, that visit does not count against your monthly visits. It is replaced.
How content rights work: on a comp visit, you can share the creator's post natively with the creator credited, and nothing more: no downloads, no reposting the file, no ads. On a paid visit, you can also repost the content on your own channels and run it as an ad for 90 days under the standard license included in the booking. The creator always owns the content. Rights follow the visit, never the plan.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
The founding roster lives where Chicago actually eats, drinks and argues about pizza.
- Logan Square
- Pilsen
- Wicker Park
- Bucktown
- Andersonville
- Hyde Park
- Lincoln Park
- Humboldt Park
- Bridgeport
- Uptown
- Avondale
- Lakeview
Questions, answered straight
Is SIGNL live in Chicago yet?
Not yet. Founding sign-ups are open now, the founding roster is forming, and founding businesses are joining the founding list. Offers begin when the Chicago market opens, and founding creators see every offer first.
Does it cost anything to join SIGNL as a creator?
No. SIGNL is free for creators. Always. Businesses pay the platform. You never pay to join, to list, or to get booked. Your compensation on standard visits is the comp itself: the meal, service or experience the business provides.
What would I actually post about in Chicago?
A tavern-style pizza verdict from your corner spot, a Pilsen taco run, a lakefront patio in season, a BYOB dinner in Logan Square. The Standard Visit is 1 post or reel plus 1 story that shares the post, posted to a 48-hour standard with a week as the outside limit, honest and clearly disclosed as comped.
I am a student at DePaul or UChicago. Can I join?
Yes. Name your school when you sign up or finish your profile and your profile carries your campus, so businesses near your school can find you first. The Standard Visit fits between classes, and alcohol offers are 21+ only.
How does a Chicago business join, and when is it charged?
Apply for the founding business list and your category spot is held in application order. Nothing is charged today. Your plan begins when the Chicago market opens, at founding pricing: $199 a month for Self-Service (up to 5 creator visits a month), $349 a month for Growth (up to 10 creator visits a month) or $699 a month for Managed (up to 20 creator visits a month), with a 3-month minimum and then month to month. Founding businesses get $100 off the first month. Visits you don't use roll into the next month, then expire.
Which parts of Chicago does the roster cover?
Neighborhood by neighborhood across the 77 community areas: Logan Square, Pilsen, Wicker Park, Andersonville, Hyde Park, Humboldt Park, Bridgeport and beyond. If your followers live here, your audience counts as local here.
This page is the Chicago founding story: why this city, and what founding means here. The Chicago market page carries the directory view: founding terms and roster details for this market.
Chicago's founding roster is forming now
Creators join free and are reviewed in sign-up order. Businesses join the founding list at founding pricing, charged nothing until the market opens.