The Reboot Chronicles with Dean DeBiase

America’s largest Black-owned enterprise and one of the world's largest private companies, World Wide Technology (WWT) has grown from a small product reseller into a top global technology solutions provider. Under the leadership of Co-founder and CEO Jim Kavanaugh , and Founder and Chairman, David Steward , this Missouri based company has experienced several reboots over the years.  Today WWT...

How would you like the pope to be your mentor? Imagine applying to be in the Swiss Guard and landing a gig as Pope John Paul II's Bodyguard. That’s what happened to Andreas Widmer when he was a teenager.  Today, as the founder and director of the Art & Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship, at The Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business, he aims to promot...

When Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann retired as a U.S Army Green Beret, he did all the “right things”, until one day he took his 45 caliber pistol into his bedroom closet—with no intent of coming out alive.   Dark times for sure. In his nearly two decades of Special Forces experiences, Scott’s military journey took him to Colombia, Peru, Iraq, Ecuador, Panama and multiple tours to Afghanistan....

When you mention GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE:GDDY), most people instinctually say, ‘that’s where I got my website URL'. As a pioneer during the early stages of the Internet, GoDaddy quickly became the go-to domain provider as the world rushed to name and claim their stake on the web.   Today—with over 9000 people who deliver $4 billion in annual revenue—this broad-based web enablement company provides...

Almost 80% of Americans live within 5 miles of a Walgreens . Founder Charles R. Walgreen Sr. established the brand in 1901 as a single location pharmacy in Chicago, which grew into an integrated healthcare, pharmacy and retailer—which filled approximately 820 million prescriptions and immunizations in the US last year alone. Now part of Walgreens Boots Alliance , the largest retail, health, pharma...

Over 1.5 billion people observe and celebrate Lunar New Year—symbolic of prosperous times, warding off evil spirits, and sharing meals with loved ones. Red lanterns for Chinese New Year, lighting of firecrackers, and spreading joy with culinary abundance, are all traditions that span thousands of years throughout Asia—from China and Vietnam to Korea and Thailand.    Newly rebooted P.F.Ch...

Social media has deteriorated—especially for women—and the media oligopolists love it. These media landlords—better known as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Google and Apple—have taken control of most everything we do, say, share, post and buy online—and they are not very excited about the future of Web3. Why? Because the promise of Web3 flips the ownership model, the money a...

An entrepreneur and global CEO, Dee Robinson is civic leader and board member of non profit organizations and corporations, including Revieve.com. Moving from the corporate world, to restaurants, to retail, Dee unpacks her entrepreneurial journey on this episode of The Reboot Chronicles, with stories on following her dream, deploying the power of AND—as well as facing down fear and naysayers that...

Not many know CEC Entertainment, but they know Chuck E.Cheese. This globally recognized entertainment and dining brand has seen it’s fair share of reboots since its founding days in Silicon Valley back in the 1970’s.  A company that hosts half a million birthday parties and two billion game plays every year, their slogan, “Where a kid can be a kid everyday ®” has been repeated (or sung) in mo...

A professional career from Disney to America’s top leadership company, Scott Jeffrey Miller’s journey, in a nutshell, has been an impactful story—from the front lines to the C-suite. Along the way, learning the habits of people who made it to the top, Scott elevated himself from salesperson to Executive Vice President at Franklin Covey.   He is a multiple best-selling author, radio and p...

A popular retail brand serving American customers in home, apparel, jewelry, and beauty merchandising categories, JCPenney has had many reboots over its 120 year history. Most recently, emerging out of bankruptcy and recruiting Marc Rosen to be CEO, the company has rightsized to 650 stores and 50,000 employees who generate about $9 billion in annual revenue. With decades of retail and e-commerce e...

In my recent Forbes article about living longer , I talk about how personalization is rebooting  the global health, beauty and wellness market—empowering individuals and impacting their well-being journeys. As a science driven company targeting consumers, athletes, health professionals and organizations,   Thorne HealthTech ( NASDAQ:THRN ) is part of that impact, redefining what it means...

One of America’s first tech companies, HP - Hewlett Packard Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) was started in a Palo Alto garage by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939—kicking off the lab coat era of Silicon Valley.   The company has been through many reboots, M&A events, and market headwinds filled with leadership challenges over the decades—and was even split into two companies in 2015. Today, fresh o...

A rebel wih a cause , CEO of SEAT , Wayne Griffiths is on a mission to reboot the EV auto market, by taking ‘boring’ out of the equation with cool CUPRA models that will reach over 500,000 units a year. Part of 250B EUR Mothership Volkswagen, the Barcelona based EV brand was launched in 2018 to make sporty performance cars—but they are also committing billions of dollars electrifying the car marke...

Pioneering the biotech industry back in the 70’s, Silicon Valley based Genentech is one of the world’s most innovative pharmaceutical companies and a leader in breakthrough lifesaving drugs, treatments, and technologies. Now part of Roche the combined entities have tens of thousands of patents and employ over 100,000 people in 100 countries who delivered over $68 B in revenue last year. Their tran...

Over a decade ago, Gotham Greens CEO, Viraj Puri , had a bold vision that would reboot indoor agriculture with AI, data-driven hydroponic systems that would run on 100% renewable electric powered greenhouses using 90% less water and land. Started on a rooftop in Brooklyn, Viraj expanded his vision into a scalable Certified B Corporation, with a nationwide network of greenhouses that grow and...

If you have traveled at all lately, you know that the industry needs a reboot and Jeff Katz is trying to do just that.   Having rebooted the travel space as founding chairman and CEO of Orbitz, he is looking to do it again as the  CEO of Journera , a travel technology company recognized as one of the most innovative travel companies , offering real-time, complete views of a traveler...

As a CNBC disruptor fifty and one of the most innovative companies on Fast Company’s list ,  Counter Brands, LLC, parent company of Beautycounter , a clean high growth certified B Corp, is redefining the beauty industry. Recently partnering with The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) , the global investment firm acquired a majority stake in the company, valuing the business around $1 billion. Taking...

When it comes to building businesses, I’m a big platform approach guy. When I met Kim (Kimon) Angelides the Executive Chairman and CEO of FemTech Health —a data driven personalized health, beauty and wellness brand for women—I knew his organization would soon be making waves in the digital health market. Kim brings decades of experience championing innovation in healthcare, in both public and...

Elaine Boltz started her job at Crocs as their Chief Operating and Transformation Officer at a most propitious time: March 2020. No sooner had she settled into her new digs at their cool Colorado headquarters when the pandemic shut down supply chains and manufacturing—but also helped make Crocs a true zeitgeist performer. Those shoes people love to hate— but everyone from kindergarteners to y...

As the Chairman of Revieve , I speak regularly at conferences around the world and meet with fellow speakers and CEO’s who proclaim that their company will transform categories like health, beauty, wellness and food. When I ran into Alan Hahn at a recent event, I was reminded that his company, MycoTechnology , is delivering the critical ingredients that next-generation food companies need at scale...

Andrea Harrison , VP of Beauty & Personal Care at CVS Pharmacy , is a business executive for whom the pandemic brought radical growth opportunity. She oversees beauty at 10,000 CVS locations that are within 10 miles of 80% of the US population. CVS Health has been growing rapidly over the last few years and forecasted to deliver over $300 billion of revenue in 2022. When so many retailers were...

Rami Rahim , CEO of Juniper Networks is someone who truly can be labeled a pioneer in the building of the Internet. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with over 9000 employees, operations in 50 countries and over $4.7 billion in revenue, Juniper Networks played a pivotal role in how we all communicate today. Along his two-plus decades of experience at Juniper (how rare in an industry so lacking in co...

I’m a big believer that some of the best business ideas are simple, and also driven by personal conviction. I recently sat down with Kara Goldin, author of a great book called Undaunted, Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, which details how she faced up to endless naysayers and triumph with Hint Water which she scaled  into a couple hundred million dollar company. What is Hint? Water with fruit e...

David Dow , CEO, Sportsmap Tech Acquisition Corp, Gow Media Know what a SPAC is? If you are interested in novel ways to raise money for a company, you certainly should. I recently interviewed David Gow , CEO of Gow Media, the largest media company in Texas with properties like SportMap Radio Network, 2 ESPN local stations, a lifestyle site, an automotive and a sports site. He recently created a bl...