INTERNATIONAL TRADE : Bridges Corp. Opens Office; Firm Offers Gateway to Russian Business
Orange County is already the U.S. base for a number of international companies. Now Bridges Corp., a Denver company promoting U.S.-Russian trade, is opening a branch here.
Bridges, which has offices in Moscow and Riga, Latvia, kicked off a membership drive at UC Irvine’s University Club Sept. 1 with about 100 people attending. Joseph L. Dorfman, executive director of the Russian trading company Ortam Inc. in Irvine, was the keynote speaker.
The chapter is the first of about 100 that Bridges hopes to establish nationwide. Since its founding in January, the company has signed up 70 members in Denver.
For annual dues ranging from $100 to $295, depending on the services used, Bridges will provide its members with a list of U.S. companies already doing business in Russia and give tips on operating in the former Soviet republic. It can also arrange for a computer network link between members and Russian companies and can offer its members discounts on some airline tickets.
Scott T. Robinson, the company’s founder, runs a small Denver business that began selling Russian-language, Western-style accounting software in 1989. Robinson, who started his export business with less than $10,000 in capital investment, saw in his company’s success a model for other small and mid-size U.S. companies wishing to compete in Russia. He found that in many cases, however, U.S. companies new to the market spent much more than necessary because they lacked market information.
Using his experience and source list as a foundation, he built a database of U.S. and Russian companies and markets. In January, he established Bridges to sell that information to U.S. companies interested in starting small businesses in former Soviet republics.
Among Robinson’s objectives is a plan to create a venture investment pool of about $100 million by the end of 1993 to pay for monthly exploratory trips by Bridges executives. Bridges would then sponsor U.S. companies by acting as a general partner in U.S.-Russian endeavors.
