Virtual study group

The young founders of an academic social networking Web site made a pitch at the Silver and Gold Venture Capital Conference in Reno last fall.

And then vanished utterly.

"The major criticism we got said the idea was not mature," says Rajan Chakrabarty, acting business manager for the project. "We decided to go with the supreme product in the market instead of a half-baked product."

So the team went underground to regroup. And fortify.

The four founders cloned themselves by advertising at University of Nevada, Reno, for others willing to invest time in exchange for ownership.

"It wasn't difficult finding people who are interested," says Mark Garro, technical lead on the project.

After several thousand hours of computer work by Garro and his team of six coders, Isotome.com plans to be up and running by month-end.

"Give it six to eight months to get traction and it should catch the attention of venture capitalists and the media," says Chakrabarty. Then the founders will be open to either investment or acquisition.

Silicon Valley venture capitalists already have made inquiries. Killer aps such as Facebook and YouTube have fueled a surge in Internet protocols, says Chakrabarty. Investors like the format because the exit strategy is a simple sellout, providing quick returns.

But crafting a business plan was a challenge, he adds. "For a Web 2.0 startup, there is no such thing as a business model."

And that spills over to wooing investors.

"The challenge is finding investors who understand the revenue plan model. It's hard to explain otherwise," says Garro. "We're not looking for the old-school mindset."

In a nutshell, a social networking Web site attracts users; advertisers then pay for those eyeballs.

But the Isotome model offers something more it will segment users into interest groups. That permits more targeted advertising.

Unlike general social networking sites, Rajan adds, isotome.com isn't designed to provide young people a way to waste time but rather to spend time wisely.

The concept: Let students create private study groups instead of the previously physical processes of meeting up.

Large lecture halls result in classes so large that it's difficult to meet fellow students who may want to study with others. And it's even more difficult on weekends, when students study alone.

"Some students fall into a lone wolf mentality," says Garro.

The Isotome site is divided by specific course classes; the beta stage targets 10 campuses: UNR, MIT, Harvard, and the Ivy League schools.

The founders include UNR students Chakrabarty, a doctoral candidate in chemical physics, and Garro, a computer science major, who met while working at Reno's Desert Research Institute.

Other founder/owners are local residents John Dunlap IV, Igor Hrustic, Leandro Loss, and Suresh Kumar, all local residents; plus Ohioians William Cheng and David Mou.

"We've gotten support beyond our imagination from DRI and UNR," says Chakrabarty. He credits the team's success to advisor Hans Moosmuller, a professor in atmospheric sciences at DRI, and to mentor Richard Bjur, director of the technology transfer office at UNR. Along with advice came connections, such as to patent attorney Robert Ryan at Holland and Hart.

The isotome.com idea placed in the top 15 of 200 entries in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Elevator Pitch Competition last year, then was selected as one of 30 to present at the Silver and Gold Conference in Reno.

And while the team overcame the difficulty of taking a raw idea to reality, one difficulty still rankles: The odd name.

Isotome, a composite of iso, meaning equality and tome, a book, conveys little meaning.

"But Network Solutions has bought up most every conceivable domain name anyone could want," says Garro. "Isotome was our one-hundredth choice, but at least it was available."