It's 7am, the sun is rising over north London and in a small flat in Chalk Farm Josephine Monroe is getting up. As editor and budding entrepreneur of the-bullet.com - a pair of websites catering for the TV and publishing industries - she has to move quickly.

Switching the kettle on and booting the computer, she logs on to the net while leaving the tea to brew in her cup. Within two hours a full briefing of the morning's papers will be on the web - just in time to catch the-bullet's audience of media executives as they arrive at their desks. In less than a year, the self-styled "guerrilla force in UK media" has grown a modest, but significant audience that has left the fledgling company with an estimated value of £2m, making Monroe, and technical director, Geraldine Billam, living proof that it is still possible to build a millionaire internet company without the help of venture capital, while still operating out of a back-bedroom. It has cost no more than the £35 a month cost of hosting the site plus their lost earnings.

"When we started we didn't think we needed venture capital, we thought that between us we had the skills to do it," explains Monroe, who left her job as TV critic at Time Out to help start the company. Billam was a housing benefit officer with Islington council.

"I still think that there are a couple of things more important than money. One is contacts, and the other is being able to get your message out. The most crucial thing is networking and telling everybody about what you do."

Valuing net companies is far from a science. The £2m valuation was based on the projected revenues of the-bullet through banner advertising. The-bullet.com/tv generates a regular audience of over 5,000, and the new www.the-bullet.com/ink hopes to attract at least as much. The valuation was made by Kickstart Ventures on the basis that each customer adds £200 to the value of the company.

It might sound like a lot, but it is the same yardstick that has been applied to much larger companies like Freeserve and eBookers, both of which have a far less targeted audience than the-bullet. Unlike most net start ups - even those enjoying the benefits of venture capital - the-bullet has made modest profits for several months.

"We've just about managed to keep going on ad revenue alone,' says Monroe. "But it has been very difficult at times. Especially now that we are trying to expand. We think we've got a good opportunity here and a distinctive voice. It would be nice to be able to afford to take on some staff, and to have some money to be able to speculate."

What makes the-bullet so distinctive is how it edits news, paper round-ups and industry gossip into a series of bullet points. Although it is rivalling subscription-based press cutting services like Early Bird, the-bullet claims it doesn't hope to compete with the trade papers and the media pages of the national press, but rather to serve them. "What we hope is that our users will come to the bullet for the story, but still go to the paper for the real detail," says Monroe. The-bullet is full of links to other papers' websites and, where none exists, to relevant page numbers. "It's like we are a five minute cup of coffee and a sticky bun, while the more established players are more like a five course lunch at Quaglinos."

Next month the duo will add the third Bullet, this time catering for the Australian media industry, before launching a raft of further bullets back in the UK in industries as diverse as banking, retailing and even farming. "It's an idea that works, its pretty simple to replicate and you don't need to spend a quarter of a million. The web doesn't have to cost millions of pounds in consultancy fees and market research."

Would Monroe and Billam recommend going it alone to other budding net entrepreneurs? "I can't tell you how many times I've wished there had been money behind us," admits Monroe. "And at times it has been very hard to keep the faith.

"Going it alone is definitely not the easy option, and I've nearly given up two or three times. But I would still say absolutely go for it, trust your instincts, work hard and you might just come up with something."

With the growth of management incubators and web development agencies and an e-conomy that seems addicted to the wealth of venture capital, the-bullet does seem to be the exception to the rule. But its success proves that with a strong idea, distinctive design and a bloody-minded will to win, there is life beyond the venture capitalists.

However, in the past few days the company has had unsolicited approaches from three potential investors. Only time will tell whether they both bite the-bullet.