About Bridge: History, Motivation, and Milestones

Bridge retailers and brands at the Rosse showroom in Atlanta. Jason Solarek, Bridge CEO and Founder, shown on far right.

In 2007, New York-based web designer Jason Solarek was thinking about his clients' businesses over a beer at Moran's pub. He noticed that Karen, who owned a retail shop in New York, was adding the same items to her website as Sallie, who owned a store in Missouri. Upon further consideration, he realized that many of his clients were adding the same items to their websites, week after week, thereby duplicating each other's work. Drawing the process on a bar napkin, he sensed an opportunity to help his clients save time and money. Solarek asked the retailers to team up with their popular brands and share the product data. Solarek asked the brands to input and maintain the data. With retailers and brands on board, Solarek setup a system by which the product data 'flowed downstream' to the retailers' websites.

Today, Bridge helps 1,000's of businesses in the retail industry share products, news, and market-sensitive data. Retailers use Bridge's Smart Product service to more easily sell 68,549 products from 114 home goods brands. In 2020, retailers will use Bridge's e-commerce platform to sell $15 million to customers. With Bridge, retailers, brands, and sales reps streamline communication and speed product to market.

Why Do We Help Indie Businesses?

Rochester circa 1905

Shopping local is proven to help support our schools, families, and communities. Specifically, shopping local helps produce local jobs and generate local tax revenue. Due to this, Bridge supports shopping local and enjoys developing community empowering software.

Jason Solarek, Bridge's CEO, grew up in Rochster, NY—a city that has seen its ups and downs and can benefit from local businesses growing. Using Rochester as inspiration, we seek to help towns and cities of all sizes grow and 'own' their futures vs let a distant tech behemoth undermine their community.

Bridge Highlights

Original Bridge concept drawn on a napkin

2007

Jason Solarek, sitting at the bar Moran's in New York City, draws the concept for Smart Products service on a napkin.

2010

Bridge launches Bridge Store, an e-commerce platform that allows any business to instantly create an online store with a gift registry.

2011

Bridge is a finalist in British Airways' small business contest.
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2012

Bridge starts holding annual seminars in Atlanta.

2015

Bridge starts holding training webinars for members.

2016

Bridge launches the bridal incentive program to motivate brides to promote their registries.

2016

Bridge creates free table tents and window decals for retail clients. These in-store materials increase awareness about the stores' gift registries.

2016

Bridge launches review software. Retailers start receiving a record number of reviews.

2016

Bridge creates the world's first 'dollartag.' Retailers can now tag products easily.

2017

Showrooms in Atlanta and Dallas start displaying Bridge table tents. These help brands connect with more retailers via Bridge.

2017

Bridge holds its first conference for brands in NYC.

2017

Bridge hosts 'Your Store vs Amazon' seminars.

2018

Bridge creates the Smart Universal Login System. This enables visitors to login once and visit many different sites without logging in again.

2019

Bridge pens the tagline "Small Store ~ Big Site" to showcase the massive online selection that Bridge retailers offer.

2019

Bridge launches a completely new version of the e-commerce platform. Bridge 2.0 is faster, has a cleaner aesthetic, and offers more powerful features.

2020

Bridge launches an updated version of its file-sharing software Library. Library enables business to more easily share files (PDFs, etc.) and have them appear in context alongside shoppable products.

2020

In response to the pandemic, Bridge helps members by offering financial assistance, a warehouse availability tracking tool, and a monthly virtual meeting sharing sales strategies from industry leaders.