LOSING his mobile phones became such a costly habit for Mr Varun Chatterji that he and his university pal Darius Cheung got down to churning out a solution to the problem.

An unlikely seed, but their idea has since germinated into a start-up called tenCube that is displaying huge potential just three years after its modest inception.

TenCube's big bright idea is WaveSecure, a programme that allows a person to lock his cellphone if it gets lost, thus disabling it.

The programme also allows cellphones to be tracked and the identification of the number for new SIM cards inserted.

'It's not just the money, but the lost data, and SMS, as well as a privacy issue these days,' said Mr Cheung on what is lost along with one's cellphone.

Their idea seems obvious when you think about it - as with many innovations - but it took the frustrations of Mr Chatterji's disappearing phones to bring it to life.

Budding tryouts

MR CHEUNG, 26, and Mr Chatterji, 27, who had been room-mates at the National University of Singapore (NUS), hit upon the idea three years ago.

When India-born Mr Chatterji lost his pricey cellphone for the umpteenth time, the two engineering graduates took action.

While Mr Cheung, who was born in Hong Kong, studied the feasibility of a business, Mr Chatterji looked into tech issues. Over the next six months, various test versions of the software were distributed to friends, and all said that they would happily pay for such a security programme.

At the time, Mr Cheung, a permanent resident in Singapore, was working at a company that produced interactive marketing material, but he and Mr Chatterji 'had always talked of starting a business'.

'I was quite happy with my job. But I was thinking about 10 years or 20 years later, will I be happy doing this? The answer was that I wanted to try something else,' said Mr Cheung.

He added that the mobile phone market is one that can only grow: 'It is now our phone book, camera, diary, calendar, e-mail. We realised that the need to protect the cellphone will only become more important. That was the trigger point. That's why we decided to set up the company.'

Setting up shop

THE two pals roped in other NUS alumni - India-born Rishi Israni, 25, and Indradeep Biswas, 24 - and set up shop, albeit in a study room at the university.

'We worked on a business plan and tried to get funding,' said Mr Cheung, who added that no one with much ready cash was willing to fund them.

'We set aside enough savings to last us for six months, and we started the company with a capital of only $30,000.' They got a lucky break two months later when they secured work space at the university.

While Mr Cheung worked on fund-raising, marketing and administrative matters, the others worked on different versions to demonstrate the programme to potential customers.

It made sense to target companies rather than individuals as the software must be customised for different phones.

Just as their money started running out, tenCube landed its first customer, one who had heard about its work on the grapevine.

Mr Cheung said: 'He offered us a project, to adapt the technology to his needs.'

That gave the firm a lifeline for a further six months, allowing it to get more cash and more clients.

Other clients included the Singapore Police Force, which wanted the technology customised for the mobile phones of its staff.

TenCube has been running for just over two years, and revenue for the latest financial year exceeded $400,000, although it is still in the red as cash is going into research.

Its corporate customers are mostly based in Singapore, except for a couple in Italy and Vietnam.

Moving forward

THE focus now is to make the programme cheap enough for mass appeal. Mr Cheung said: 'We just launched an individual version four months ago.' A trial version of this can be downloaded for free.

'We also want to work with more partners, for example, with telco operators,' he added. This could result in a system where consumers pay a nominal fee to the telecommunications firm for the service, much like paying for caller ID.

WaveSecure may also eventually be included in the cost of a new mobile phone.

There are also plans to expand a second part of its business - developing customised applications for organisations such as the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

Fitting right

MR CHEUNG said that tenCube could not have come so far if it had not begun with the right people.

'I was really lucky that I started with the right partners... We have seen companies come and go because the fit wasn't there. It is important that you and your fellow partners have the same appetite for risk, the same time horizon and the same integrity and loyalty to each other.'

Another prong in the firm's strategy is to try to work with the right partners.

'At first, when we did not have a product, we benefited from the various programmes Microsoft offers developers to create new technology on its platform,' said Mr Cheung.

'Microsoft continues to support us by matchmaking their customer needs to our core capability in mobile security.

'It's a win-win partnership where we help fulfil some of their customer needs and they introduce new opportunities to us, and the customer ends up having a more integrated and complete solution.'

Growing force

ITS growth is reflected in the way its workforce has expanded from the core team of four to 12 in Singapore and six in India.

However, attracting talented people remains a challenge.

'We are not a Skype,' said Mr Cheung referring to the high-profile Internet phone service start-up that attracted whizz-kids by the planeloads.

Neither is Singapore similar to Silicon Valley, where people do not think twice about joining a start-up.

But Mr Cheung has few regrets. The bachelor says that despite the long days and scant social life, he would not trade his situation for any alternative.

'I have a lot of friends, and many of them want to try out various business ideas. I say that they should go ahead with it.'