Thekkiam, an online company based out of Bangalore runs an interesting monthly contest/quiz called ‘IAmAGenius’ that’s spread over 3 levels with a total of 12 questions. The website was launched in October 2008 and receives visitors from around 58 countries with an average of 800 hits per day. “Almost 95% of the people who visit this site / play this quiz are from premium institutions such as Harvard, Georgia tech, IIT, IISC, IIM etc. and from offices such as IBM, Dell, Infosys, Wipro, Texas instruments etc.” according to Mr. Dhananjay, Director at Thekkiam.

IAmAGenius’ monthly winners are showcased on the ‘Hall of Genius’ section within the website and every participant that passes level 1 has the chance to become the member of a parallel digital world called ‘Digital Geniuses’. Launched on the 26th of September 2009, the digital world received close to 4000 hits a day and is meant specifically for the quiz contestants. When asked about the purpose behind the website, Dhananjay said, “Imagine how it would be if the able, interested, intelligent and knowledgeable like minded souls get to interact with one another freely. It would definitely make a world of a difference to the real world that we live in. Thekkiam and Digital Geniuses would definitely help bring this above said community closer to one another. This site helps one send & receive mails within the community, create and join Groups and Companies, make friends, Blog, 2weet, Advertise, inform events, hold their thoughts etc., – all under one roof. Also, DeeGees (digital money earned through ‘IAmAGenius’ contests) helps one determine their strength in the community.”

Dhananjay works as an online consultant for an advertising agency in Chennai and a BPO at Bangalore. Over the years the 40 year old Civil Engineer has worked in varied advertising fields (Mainline, Direct Marketing, Outdoors and Online) gaining expertise in Oracle 8.0, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, VB, ASP, XML, Adobe and Macromedia software. Both Thekkiam and Digital Geniuses are an independent project with merely designing duties being outsourced. As far as monetization goes he mentioned, “Presently, all the expenses for the sites have been borne by me as I’m able to afford my personal expenses and also the managing of the sites, I do not plan to monetize if this continues. But in due course, if the site expands and it grows beyond what I could afford, I might think of monetizing” Meanwhile the ‘one man workforce’ continues to develop newer projects ‘Parallel Time Zones’ and ‘Many More Lives’, both of which we will be looking forward to eagerly.