[Startup Watchlist] Bootstrapped, Profitable and B2B

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As we hit the 10th newsletter mark, it's a great feeling to know that close to 1000 people have subscribed and hardly anyone unsubscribing (we've had one). I missed out sending the newsletter the last two weeks because once, we had a problem with the mailing service and I had to publish it in an article format and last week, travel with TechSparks made it hard for me to maintain the same quality and hence the skip (see event highlights from Bangalore, Delhi, and more details on TechSparks).

We are now focusing on fewer companies per newsletter with a deeper dive. This time, we have a few enterprise companies that are bootstrapped and profitable (the two big names that come up in startup circles with these parameters are FusionCharts and Wingify). Here we go:

1. SolutionsInfini

SolutionsInfini is an Enterprise Messaging and Communications Company that was founded by Ashish Agarwal and Aniketh Jain in 2009. They started out doing various things including services but soon realized their strength lies in Bulk SMS where they have now made a mark. Yes, data is coming in and SMS no longer the force it used to be but enterprises the world over rely heavily on SMS for communications. And SI claims that the market is growing globally.

Based out of Bangalore, SolutionsInfini is brining in more than $6 million in annual revenues and has grown to become a 100+member team. the company is bootstrapped and has a solid roadmap ahead with three interesting products lined up- Dialstreet, a cloud-enabled business communication system, InfiNeo – an SMS-powered mobile banking platform and InfaTell – global SMS platform that lets business communicate with their prospects.

Read our interview with SolutionsInfini.

2. Tyto

Tyto has a very interesting story- it is a commercial venture built around an open source project named Sahi. V Narayan Raman is a seasoned professional who first started up in 2003 but things didn't work out. He then went on to work for ThoughtWorks where he started playing around with Open Source and came up with a project to automate web application testing.The initial model was to provide support but talking with existing clients helped come at a conclusion that a premium version of Sahi is viable and thus came into existence the company Tyto (in 2009). Since then, it has garnered more than 200 enterprise companies and is a team of 14 people.They've had a pretty rich story in terms of learning), read about it.

3. FixNix

FixNix is an information security product startup, a solution to the problem that founder Shanmugavel faced while working with another startup as their Chief Information Security Officer. The vision is to democratize Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) solutions at affordable rates. Started from Chennai in December 2012, Shanmugavel's story is one of hustle. He has adjusted according to the needs and managed to steer the company (read more about the obstacles they've overcome).

FixNix has been able to initiate contact with government agencies like STQC, NIC State Data Center, and BHEL for pilots. In the meanwhile, Shanmugavel recently wrote a secret letter to raise a bridge round to move ahead quicker. In the meanwhile, they do have some big clients like Mphasis and Dubai Airport. It'll be interesting to see how the company progresses from here.

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