Away from the camera, the dot coms blew up

As he struggles for the front door of his Leeds home, Joe Rajko's mobile phone rings. He is caught in a freak thunderstorm and already soaked to the skin. "When you're in a wheelchair you seem to get much wetter in the rain. Could you phone back in a few moments?"

The quietly spoken 39-year-old has just become one of Britain's unlikeliest business tycoons. As stock markets tumble and technology companies go to the wall, Mr Rajko has successfully floated his internet idea on London's Alternative Investment Market. This has given Bright Futures Group – owner of youreable.com, a website for disabled people – a market value of £6.8m. With a 10 per cent stake, Mr Rajko is on his way to becoming a paper millionaire. "I'm not really interested in the money," he says, once he's indoors and dried off. "It's only a paper profit after all."

Paralysed in a motorbike crash five years ago, Mr Rajko launched his business after he jointly won Channel 4's much-hyped The E-Millionaire Show. Presented by news reader Jon Snow, the programme was broadcast in spring 2000, a zeitgeist for the internet boom.

Lured by £1m in prize money, some 7,000 dot- com hopefuls applied, and the list was eventually whittled down to 15. The often harebrain ideas were presented to a panel of new-economy "gurus" such as PR man Matthew Freud, internet investor Dan Wagner, advertising boss Sir Martin Sorrell and easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

There were two winners: Mr Rajko and Colin Robinson with his educational supplies site schoolsforschools.com. They shared the booty and hours of business advice from Andersen Consulting (now known as Accenture).

"The show was totally overwhelming," says Mr Rajko. "Getting on stage was a more frightening experience than when I was told that I would never be able to walk again. But it allowed me to set up a business that even I benefit from today."

Other contestants on the show haven't been quite so successful, and their websites, lost in cyber- space, stand testimony to flawed ideas (see right).

Craig Newman, a criminal psychologist, thought he could make a million with a site offering soothing pictures and images to stressed executives. Today Mr Newman is thought to be working in Saudi Arabia and his site offers just one message: "Hiya!".

Alexander Buckley, who proposed an internet music site, was last seen with his girlfriend by a fellow contestant at a petrol station on the A1. His website no longer exists.

But an investigation by The Independent on Sunday has tracked down two other contestants with very different stories to tell.

The first is Tim Pollard, who developed growyourhome.com, which estimates the cost of making home improvements. The 37-year-old Mr Pollard, who lives near Croydon, didn't make it to the final. Nevertheless, he set up his own company, Netrepreneurs, and launched the growyourhome website.

"At the time of the show, Andersen Consulting was telling me that a business like mine would turn over something like £12m and would need at least £6m to get going. The figures were just absurd," he says.

After setting up the site himself, he approached a number of venture capitalists. "They did not convince me that it was worth investing much more time and effort," says Mr Pollard.

The site still works but makes no money for him. "I am rather pleased that no one invested in my idea, because if they had, I would now be bankrupt." A few weeks ago he sent Companies House the necessary forms to wind up Netrepreneurs.

Using his new computer skills Mr Pollard set himself up as a web- site designer. "I use the money I make to fund my other main interest, politics. In May I was elected as a local Conservative councillor in Sanderstead [south Croydon], which is the bluest of blue."

In contrast to Mr Pollard, fellow contestant and joint winner Colin Robinson is still pursuing his business idea, with mixed results."After the show, the feedback from the general public was overwhelming. People stopped me in the street and asked me for my autograph and at one point I had over 7,000 emails in my account," he says.

Mr Robinson sold a 33 per cent stake in schoolsforschools.com to backers of The E-Millionaire Show. These included internet incubators Oxygen Holdings and Bright Station. He also brought in his brother David as a director. But as the dot-com market started to collapse, Mr Robinson saw the writing on the blackboard and repeatedly tried to sell his business.

"The pressures became quite difficult. There was lots of to-ing and fro-ing. People made rash assumptions about the business. We had heated discussions [with our backers]. I'll leave it at that."

Schoolsforschools was almost sold to internet company Biblio Tech, which would have made Mr Robinson a millionaire many times over. At the last minute the deal collapsed.

There were further reports of suitors, but none materialised and the business was dissolved last month.

Undeterred, Mr Robinson is back with his latest venture, Electronic Schools Procurement, which he has set up with his brother and former schoolsforschools chief executive Sheila McLeod.

Backed by private money, Mr Robinson, who is marketing director, says: "My complete focus is saving time and cutting red tape for teachers." The company tried to fill up that free time by offering raffle prizes – including a week's stay in the Algarve – at the recent National Association of Head Teachers Conference.

The 39-year-old Mr Robinson, who lives in Windsor, plans to launch his latest website next week and still believes that he'll become a millionaire. "One day it will happen," he insists.

As for the other contestants on the programme, well perhaps they're already millionaires. If they are, however, it won't be as a result of appearing on The E-Millionaire Show.

Web of intrigue: sites fade away

* Youreable.com: fully functioning website, part of the AIM-listed Bright Futures Group.

* Schoolsforschools.com: site running only in demo form. Holding company dissolved this year. Its founder has set up a new business, Electronic Schools Procurement.

* Growyourhome.com: site running as a demo. Holding company dissolved this year. Its founder is now a website designer and Tory councillor.

* Loginchillout.com: message on site simply says "Hiya!". Its founder is rumoured to be working in Saudi Arabia.

* Beepboutique.co.uk: message appears saying that the venture is looking for financial backing.

* Mykindofholiday.com: the web address appears to have been sold to a travel writer.

* Partyforever.co.uk: pledges to "rock your world" and asks for users to submit their email address with the promise of "future party developments". Unfortunately, no wild party venues were emailed out when The Independent on Sunday submitted its details.

* Earnies.com: address for sale.

* Up4rent.co.uk: address for sale.

* Livemoments.com: address for sale.

* Hair2hair.net: "website could not be found".

* Bethereatbedtime.com: "website could not be found".

* Viewahotel.com: "website could not be found".

* Myautofile.co.uk: "website could not be found".

* Com-poser.com: "website could not be found".