Success mantras of 5 start-ups

The soldiers of small enterprise are now making waves in their own little way. Today, we bring you the 5 exciting start-ups under Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million)!

Part 1: 5 big business opportunities for budding entrepreneurs

Watch this space for more on the hottest start-ups...

1. AdRunINDIA

Entrepreneurs: Achin Kansal, Mahendra Chourey

Seed capital: Rs 100,000 (self and family)

Business: Launched on August 2009, it is an out-of-home advertisement company using the concept of advertising on vehicles.

How it makes money: Takes orders from clients and charges for services delivered.

Required skills: Creativity and innovation to deliver advertising solutions to the client.

The WOW factor : Business model base don the radio cab companies to give maximum exposure.

How it is marketed: Targeted SMS, ads on web-based classifieds, promo e-mails and word of mouth

Performance: Has worked with two big clients till date

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2. Apartmentadda.com

Entrepreneurs: Venkat Kandaswamy, Sangeetha Banerjee

Seed capital: Rs 725,000 (self)

Business: Launched in November 2008, this online portal offers software and accounting tools for home owners' associations to run their residential complexes.

How it makes money: Selling customised digital signage platforms for specific communication needs.

Required skills: Agile project development, ERP expertise, database design, and programming

The WOW factor: Focused on multi-dwelling unit management; features built and evolved with the best practices from veteran associations.

How it is marketed: Word of mouth, online product demo.

Performance: Break even reached within 1.5 years of operation.

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3. Breakthru Digital India

Entrepreneurs: Venuraj Janakarajan, Venkatesha Munivenkatachari

Seed capital: Rs 450,000 (self)

Business: Launched in December 2009, a specialised e-signage company focused on providing simplified communication solutions.

How it makes money: Selling customised digital signage platforms for specific communication needs.

Required skills: Technology prowess (hardware, software, electronics and networking), content aesthetics (relevance, creativity).

The WOW factor: Helps clients engage and influence the audience in a wise range of controlled environments.

How it is marketed: Direct sales, online marketing, social media, word-of-mouth influence and strategic partnerships.

Performance: Currently, it has 15 clients.

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4. Capillary Technologies

Entrepreneurs: Aneesh Reddy Boddu, Krishna Kumar Mehra, Ajay Modani

Seed capital: Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million)

Business: Launched in November 2008, it provides mobile-based customer engagement solutions and loyalty/referral solutions, which along with instant gratification and cross selling, increase the retailer's wallet share.

How it makes money: Charges a retainer fee per month and a small variable success fee.

Required skills: Technology skills to build a system to handle purchase transactions in real time. Analytical skills to identity customer purchase behaviour.

The WOW factor: Mobile-based, so customer does not need to carry loyalty cards or fill forms. Provides real-time customer specific, cross-sell campaigns when he/she is till in the store.

How it is marketed: Cold calling retailers, references from networks, current clients, generating leads though channel partners and retail conferences.

Performance: Over 15 large retailers across 1000 stores and about 100 cities and towns.

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5.Catalyst Labs

Entrepreneurs: Preetham Venkky

Seed capital: Rs 700,000

Business: Preaching new concepts and technologies using social media.

How it makes money: Conducting workshops and training sessions.

Required skills: Web savvy, basic HTML/XML knowledge, all round social media knowledge.

The WOW factor: Enables and executes social media conversations. Pioneer in videopedia.

How it is marketed: Social media, world of mouth

Performance: Currently, it has 10 clients.