Fairborn IT company working with Air Force school

When Peerless Technologies first began, Michael Bridges, president, and his daughter, CFO Andrea Kunk, shared an internet connection with a landline and splitter. Now the company employs 75 and looking at further expansion. Staff photo by Chris Stewart

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra When Peerless Technologies first began, Michael Bridges, president, and his daughter, CFO Andrea Kunk, shared an internet connection with a landline and splitter. Now the company employs 75 and looking at further expansion. Staff photo by Chris Stewart

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 10:25 PM Thursday, April 15, 2010

FAIRBORN — Michael Bridges remembers the early days of his company, Peerless Technologies Corp., when he and his daughter, Andrea Kunk, were the company’s sole employees.

There were two telephone lines in the space they shared, one for a land line, another for a dial-up Internet connection. The two couldn’t get on the Internet simultaneously unless they shared a computer.

That was a decade ago. A lot has changed since, except this: Father and daughter still work together. And joining them is David Bridges, Bridges’ son and Kunk’s brother.

The information technology company can boast about what is one of the first concrete examples of the expected payoff from the 2005 BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) process.

In January, the company announced that it and five other contractors will split $93 million in contracts over five years to support the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, which is moving to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base from Brooks City-Base in Texas.

“Peerless is a well-run company with the right fit of resources that can deliver,” said Mark Wysong, program manager for the Wright State Research Institute. The institute will work with Peerless and other institutions in performing the work.

Bridges is a Mad River Twp. native who graduated from Stebbins High School in 1977. He grew up watching his dad work at Dayton’s Peerless Transportation and Storage. His dad, Carl, and his mom, Vivian, bought the company in the early 1980s.

“I think I followed in his footsteps in many ways,” Bridges said of his dad. “I’m also cut from that same entrepreneurial bent.”

For her part, Kunk said she feels “blessed to work in this environment. It’s been really neat just to watch the company grow.”

Son David — who will accept an Air Force commission this year — called his dad “a great boss.” Before Bridges started Peerless, he spent some 20 years working for engineering and technology firms, mostly local, but two years in San Diego in the mid-1980s. He learned what he calls the two most important facets of working for the federal government: understanding what the government does and building a “strong network” of colleagues.

By early 2000, Bridges knew it was time to start his own business. He used space provided by his father near the University of Dayton Arena, and his first crucial sale within 90 days. Employees were added “one by one and two by two.”

Bridges wouldn’t disclose revenue, but said the company is profitable.

He likes a quote from former Iams owner Clay Mathile: “Business owners never really make a profit. They just keep raising the bottom line.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.