People who sign up for the Company of Friends or for FC:Forums know the rules: no spam, no generic networking nonsense. But that doesn't mean that people don't use CoF and Fast Talk as tools to pursue business goals. Indeed, participants have found partners and clients through the FC network -- in some cases, halfway around the world.

Last February, Mario Vittone, 34, president of Rader Technical Education Center, a technical-education provider in Virginia Beach, Virginia, signed on to FC:Forums with the hope of finding ideas for his company's Web site. In the 'Start Ups' forum, he met Tanadi Santoso, 39, CEO of sam-design.com, a firm based in Surabaya, Indonesia. Santoso offered to take a stab at designing the site -- and Vittone liked the result.

Today, sam-design.com designs all of Rader's online content and collateral material, and plans are in the works to open a sam-design.com office in the United States, as well as a training center for Rader in Indonesia. 'I work with 64 other partners. I'd trade all of them away tomorrow if I could keep working with sam-design.com,' says Vittone.

Santoso says that his partnership with Vittone has helped his firm to push its creative boundaries -- despite cultural differences. 'We owe our success to Mario's belief in us,' Santoso says. 'Even when we've doubted ourselves, he's shown faith in us.'

Coordinates: Mario Vittone, mvittone@radertec.com; Tanadi Santoso, santoso@sam-design.com

From: April 2000 issue