The story so far: Flametree, an internet start-up with a portal dedicated to helping working women balance their busy lives, was launched three months ago by founders Jayne Buxton and Rosemary Leith. With nearly £1 million in private backing, the pair aim to have the company in profit in two years' time.

It was perhaps inevitable. Chris, the company's content and technology manager, has grown a goatee beard and is wearing combat trousers to give himself that authentic internet look. Though there is no sign of a scooter - yet.

This explosion of facial hair is not the only thing to have changed at Flametree. All 10 staff have moved to new offices in Kensington - no longer are they split into two offices as they were at their old premises in Victoria.

'It makes a huge difference for us to be together. It just wasn't productive before,' Rosemary says. The office is far more spacious and better lit than the Victoria premises but, because Rosemary secured a 'relatively' short lease they are no more expensive. She even called in a favour by acquiring old office furniture from a previous employer for free.

And the company also has a new employee. Sasha, Flametree's marketing and business development director, has joined after a long stint working for Microsoft in Asia. 'I burnt out badly in Asia and so my husband and I took a year off and went to live in Spain,' Sasha says.

Now, however, she is keen to work again, especially for an employer dedicated to preventing busy women from suffering her fate. Sasha's main job will be to help Flametree identify its users and then target them more effectively.

She is pleased to learn that flametree visitors are heavy online shoppers: nearly two-thirds of them buy goods over the internet at least once a month. In addition, 86 per cent of Flametree visitors use the internet two or three times a week at least.

The company's profile seems to be soaring, too. A mail shot targeting 200,000 women brought a 'phenomenal' response, according to Rosemary. Jayne, meanwhile, is doing her bit by speaking at specialist conferences in Milan and New York. 'Having Jayne networking really gives us introductions into areas we probably wouldn't have been able to get into otherwise,' says Sasha.

Flametree is looking to sell its content to companies' intranet sites, thus helping their busy professionals find that important work/life balance. The company believes that this will help it shake off its image as a purely business-to-consumer dotcom - important given the problems these models are facing at the moment. To do this, the company knows it needs to have fantastic must-see content which really helps people.

The plan now is for around 70 per cent of revenues to come from sponsorship and licensing deals; the company is in talks with a number of interested parties. Flametree has struck a deal with revolver.com, an online recruitment firm which is to start taking some content on its site.

Although some dotcom firms have found the going tough in recent months - notably clickmango, the online vitamin company that shut up shop last month - Flametree is confident it has a strong future.

'It's quite unique. We help people find their work/life balance and there's no one else doing that,' Rosemary says. So they are not looking to buy a bouncy castle for office use like clickmango did, then? 'No' comes the curt reply. 'Our accountant said to me the other day "I can't believe how little money you've spent".'

To Rosemary, this is manna from heaven.