STARTUP#IndiBlogger

IndiBlogger : a Rs 1 crore venture

For most people, blogging serves as a good pastime, to air or read views and opinions. However, for four brilliant youngsters from Chennai, harnessing the power of blogs has proved to be a money- minting venture - a Rs 1crore business, to be precise. "We were all avid bloggers and saw the potential early, so we based our business idea on it," says 33- year - old Renie Ravin, managing director of IndiBlogger.

Launched in August 2007, IndiBlogger.in started as a free blogging platform for Indians. However, the founders - Renie Ravin, Karthik DR, Vineet Rajan and Anoop Johnson -  had a bigger game plan: to mobilise the blogosphere, a nascent field at the time, so that companies and brands could engage with their customers. The idea was conceptualised by the founders (barring Rajan), all in their 20s at a party in early August 2007. At the time, Karthik and Johnson were selling security solutions for ostsold Software, and Ravin was working as a web architect for BroadSpire, a software company in Chennai. Convinced that they were on to a good thing , the trio quit their respective jobs shortly afterwards and focused on their start-up. Rajan left his account managing job with Hewlett Packard, to join IndiBlogger after a blogger's meet in Pune , in March 2008.

Luckily for the founders, they found an angel investor, Nitin Bindal, who chipped in with the seed capital of 32 lakhs. The money was spent on building infrastructure and marketing.

Here's how IndiBlogger works: Registering one's blog is free of charge, but members must publish at least five blog post to continue to be a member of the community. The company's eight- strong team handles support and moderation from Chennai and Bangalore. The revenue comes from connecting brands and bloggers via unique blogging contest and meets, which are organised periodically across the country.

February 2008 was a milestone year, with Microsoft sponsoring the first bloggers' meet in Bangalore.

In the first year of operation the company generated a turnover of 40 lakh!

Today, their clients include Lakme, Castrol, Apollo hospital, Mahindra &Mahindra, Cleartrip, Vodafone, Dove, Samsung, Surf Excel and Fiat.

IndiBlogger has held 61 blogger meets across the country and an International blogger's meet in New York. No wonder they are confident of earning a turnover of 4.5 crore by the next fiscal.