Idea Spinners
22 Dec, 2008 | Bangalore Mirror

IDEA SPINNERS

• Olympian Hakimuddin S Habibulla, Nandan Kamath and Joseph Ollapally started GoSports in 2006.
• The company identifies talented sports persons and provides them services necessary to reach their goals. The trio's immediate goal is to help players qualify for commonwealth Games and Olympics

Renuka Phadins

Profiles four entrepreneurs from the city who have thought outside the box and have discovered opportunities, where less sharp eyes would have perceived only saturation.

These are young entrepreneurs who continue to dream in the face of forecasts of hard times by doomsayers. From technological innovation and retailing specialized information to health care and compost, the defining element common to all of them is to visualize business as a way of making a difference to people's lives.

Leveraging Technology

Sanjeev S runs a one-and-a-half year old start-up Medshpere Technologies, a global teleradiology - the means of electronically transmitting radiographic patient images such as X-rays, CT and MRIs, and consultative text from one location to another and Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) solution provider. His company develops teleradiology and PACS products and services for customers around the world. Medsphere offers hardware independent architecture and modular structures. It also plans to enter telemedicine and telepathology and is seeking out global markets where the demand for its products is huge. Medsphere was set up with Rs 1 crore. It was profitable from the first year itself.

Sanjeev's main challenge is scaling up visibility and acceptability in the international market. Medsphere already has 70 percent market share in India's teleradiology market. Big players (GE, Siemens, Philips) do not compete in this space as they do not have the right product to offer. However, in PACS the competition primarily comes from biggies as they club PACS with equipment sale.

Business Of Analysis

Business globally collate data about their markets, products and customers for years. Today they are hosts to huge databases of information which reveal a lot about what works for them, what does not and what could happen in the future. Active Cubes - an entrepreneurial venture founded by Rajesh Varrier helps firms globally to harness the power of this information to understand the impact of their strategies, and product performance using analytics.

They ensure that right data is available at the right time to provide intelligent insights leading to informed decisions. Varrier's target is anybody with a consumer base. His clients include FMCG majors Unilever and media houses. He has customers in India, US and Australia. Varrier and six others have invested more than USD 1 million in the venture. Revenues aimed at are USD 1 million this year. Growth plan is to reach revenues of USD 50 million in the next four years.

NEW GAMEPLAN

GoSports is a sports management company that seeks to identify young people with a potential and passion for sports, and provides them with the services necessary to reach their goals. The company was founded in 2006 by Olympian Hakimuddin S Habibulla, Nandan Kamath and Joseph Ollapally, an alumnus of Oxford and Harvard School of Law.

Their Focus is on making key interventions in the careers of promising athletes by securing them access to training, advisory, monitoring and representation services, sponsorships and other personal development opportunities.

GoSports also consults with local and international business, brands, federations and governments on a wide variety of matters relating to Indian sport. These include formulation and drafting of sports policies and sports-related laws, strategic consulting on using sports in marketing and other brand communications, media planning and content development, industry research and corporate sensitization programmes. The sporting and consequent financial success retains a stake in their future earning from various sources.

This company focuses on sports other than cricket, though cricket is not ignored. "At present, it is money in, money out. Payout is in the longer term," Kamath says. He and his partners are aiming at helping players qualify in big events like Common wealth Games and Olympics.

BEST OUT OF WASTE

Daily Dump, set up by Poonam Bir Kasturi, has designed a product that converts kitchen waste into compost at home. The product, made of terracotta, is sourced from village potters and marketed through word-of-mouth referrals, media awareness, and the company website. It is sold through individuals, retail stores and societies. The designs are 'open source', so individuals in other locations can replicate, adapt, build on, sell and use it.

The product works well in independent homes and Kasturi's team is working on a 'mechanical composter' for use in flats. "Our vision is to see a composter pre-fitted in every flat sold in the country, as a standard fitting. Daily dump not only retro fits composters at homes and other establishments but also provides maintenance advice and assistance through its service plans, essentially allowing you to just dump and letting nature and Daily Dump do the rest." Her biggest challenge in is changing the behaviour of customers. Urban Indians are very complacent about getting involved in waste management, she says.