About Us

Practical Data was founded by Joel Jimenez and Steve Brummel in Chicago, IL during the spring of 2002. The dot-com bubble had just burst, but not the hopes of creating a succesful internet based business. Both partners had worked for a number of dot-coms and then moved into freelance work. After several projects together, they determined a partnership made sense based on their complementary skill sets. Joel being the experienced technical guru and Steve the "hot shot" designer.

Early projects included everything from a kiosk application for Meijer to a fully custom e-commmerce store. Before forming the company, Steve had gained extensive experience working on the Yahoo! Store platform. This became the basis for the current Practical Data offerings. Today, our primary focus is extending the Yahoo! platform with advanced applications and integration work.

Practical Data has grown organically over time thru referrals that now form a network of satisfied clients.

Management Team

Steve Brummel Creative Director & Co-founder	Steve has 10+ years of professional experience working as a web developer and creative designer, with expertise in both web and print based graphic design. Prior to co-founding Practical Data, Inc., Steve served as Senior Designer for Preview Port (an author web portal), Senior Designer for Orbit Commerce (now "Digital River") and Graphic Artist and Web Developer for Chicago start-up XOLIA.com, Inc. Steve holds a BS in Sound Engineering from Columbia College, Chicago IL.
Joel Jimenez Director of Technology & Co-founder	Joel has 10+ years of professional experience in web-based technology architecture and project management with an emphasis in e-commerce and content management systems. Prior to co-founding Practical Data, Inc., Joel served as a consultant to Providian Financial, served as Director of Technology for XOLIA.com, Inc. and acted as the Development Lead for Blue Diesel, an interactive media company serving the Healthcare and retail markets. Joel holds a BS in Computer Science Engineering from the Ohio State University.