About

Here is an article published in the local paper.

20 under 40 ... Young entrepreneurs share love of technology

July 4, 2004

Twin Falls now has an official resident whiz kid -- times two.

Dallas Gray and Nate Bondelid sharpened their computer skills at Kimberly High School and were running their own business when they were barely of legal age.

By Denise Turner Times-News writer

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/busi ... toryID=5615

 

Gray is now 23. Bondelid just turned 21. Tek-Hut, their computer sales and service business, turned a profit in early 2002, after only three months. Last year, the duo tallied just under $500,000, doubling figures from the year before.

Attempting to explain their entrepreneurial success, Bondelid simply says, "People really like us because we get the job done."

What's not to like?

At work, Gray and Bondelid wear the uniform of the single young computer genius: Jeans, jeans and jeans. Their offices are decorated in empty Pepsi bottles. Posters on the walls convey motivational sentiments like "All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible."

Bondelid said he and Gray named the company Tek-Hut because they are "techies" and because a parent company with companies underneath is sort of like a hut. photo JEREMY STOA/The Times-News Dallas Gray, foreground, and Nate Bondelid are bona fide whiz kids who were running their own computer sales and service business, TekHut, when they were barely of legal age.

 

Then he added, "And we really like Pizza Hut pizzas."

Early on, Bondelid embarked on a legendary path blazed by teenage whiz kids before him: In high school, he got into some technological hot water.

"In my freshman year, I took over a network and gave myself administrator privileges," Bondelid recalled. "I got kicked off the school computer system for two years."

So he went to the College of Southern Idaho and enrolled in night computer classes.

These days, Tek-Hut has contracts with most of the school districts in the area. But the owners are still grateful for their first client, Care Billing Service -- Genny Crandall and Gail Peterson, who also built a successful business in a two-year span.

Gray and Bondelid didn't borrow money for start-up costs. Instead, they used their own credit cards. Today, they say, they have virtually no debt.

Their payroll is $7,000 a month. They employ one tech and subcontract some of their Web design and E-commerce. Their office manager, Erin Walker, is Gray's fiancee.

Every dime of profit goes into real estate.

Gray and Bondelid have purchased several commercial properties, including their own office building at 460 South Main. They live on opposite sides of a duplex, which they also own. Recently, they turned over their rental properties to a management company.

"Dallas and Nate are organized and conscientious," said Zane Lindley, their accountant. "They know their business inside and out."

Everyone who nominated them for "20 Under 40" talked about how young they are.

"Dallas has traveled all over the United States as a trainer for Cisco Networking," said his customer (and future mother-in-law) Conni Walker. "They sent him out to lead seminars when he was too young to rent a car."

The guys are mostly self-taught, thanks in part to Nate's parents, Gary and Gaylene Bondelid.

"We didn't want him to have Nintendo, so we got him a computer," Gaylene Bondelid said of her son's earlier years. "We thought it would be more educational."

Along the way, Gray joined Business Professionals of America and Civil Air Patrol. Bondelid earned his Eagle Scout badge.

Now they just want to hire a couple more techs, move to a few more cities and play a little golf. They aren't multimillionaires yet, they say, but don't count them out.

Come to think of it, isn't Bill Gates an Eagle Scout?