The Reboot Chronicles with Dean DeBiase

On the heels of the pivotal collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), I recently talked with Henrique Dubugras, the Cofounder and Co-CEO of Brex, an integrated corporate card and spend management software company that has raised $1.5B in capital. 

 As companies frantically exited their SVB accounts at a record pace, in one of the world’s largest bank runs, Brex moved quickly to attract and support startups by fast tracking applications, maintaining card credit limits, and more than doubling FDIC insurance levels to $2.25M through their partner bank network.  

Smart moves, as Brex has since received billions of dollars of deposits from thousands of SVB clients—and is now looking to potentially raise billions more to help companies with emergency operational and payroll bridge loans.  

Henrique joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles for a fascinating discussion about how they are rebooting the sector, what’s next in FinTech, and provide an exclusive look inside Brex.

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 has over 55 locations across the globe and 9,000 people that delivered $17B in revenue last year. With Silicon Valley heavyweight partners like Cisco, HPE, Dell, NetApp, F5, Intel, VMware, Microsoft, IBM, Juniper, and dozens more–WWT has grown into a trusted solutions provider to over 70 Fortune 100 companies.

Jim Kavanaugh joined me for a remarkable episode of The Reboot Chronicles to share his fascinating growth journey that is chalk full of stories and tips leaders need now.

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 promote a new kind of entrepreneur—one focusing on Principled Entrepreneurship.

Andreas is an entrepreneur, associate professor, business coach, speaker, multiple book author, including the acclaimed “The Pope & the CEO”, chock-full of leadership lessons he learned as a Swiss guard protecting the pope. Andreas has recently authored “The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship”, a book that teaches businesses to be both virtuous and profitable.

Andreas joined me for an extremely engaging and personal episode of The Reboot Chronicles to unpack his book and uncover what principled entrepreneurship means—and how you can tap into it.

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. Today Scott has completely rebooted himself into a top Storyteller, Actor, Playwright, Podcaster, Author, Speaker and Coach. Inspired by his tough journey, he founded Rooftop Leadership, to help leaders tackle the anomalies around low trust and how to  build human connections in high stakes environments. 

His brutal transformation is an inspirational story for all of us—from the battlefield, to the  boardroom—and even theater with his new partner Gary Sinise.  As a warrior storyteller, he shares his remarkable rapport-building skills from combat, to help leaders navigate “now-or-never” scenarios, with a focus on relationship building techniques. A replica of how he inspired local tribes in Iraq and Afghanistan, to make game-changing decisions with low resources—“Rooftop Leadership"  is helping teams avoid conflicts by nurturing trust.   

Scott joined me on an amazing episode of The Reboot Chronicles to reflect on how his decades of Special Forces deployments are changing civilians lives—they may even change yours.

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 the world’s entrepreneurs and SMB’s a portfolio of products and services that have everything to do their growing their businesses. GoDaddy empowers people and organizations, providing practical guidance and tools to manage their work and succeed online—from offering services to build professional websites, to attracting viewers and selling products and services to their customers.  

A key new leader on senior team is CLO (Chief Legal Officer) and Corporate Secretary Michele Lau, who is rebooting the company’s approach to legal, compliance, audit, sustainability, ESG, governance, and government and industry affairs. Michele brings a refreshing take on strategy, culture and growth that is engaging stakeholder groups across the company and industry. We had an insightful discussion on this episode of The Reboot Chronicles and unpacked how she is helping to take the iconic brand to next-level of growth and innovation.

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, pharmacy and daily living destination across the U.S and Europe, the brands serve millions of walk in customers, patients and omni-channel shoppers’ every day. The combined entity was founded 170 years ago, is an index component of the Dow Jones sustainability indices (DJSI), with 13,000 locations and 325,000 people that delivered $130 billion in revenue last year.

Heading the multibillion-dollar Beauty, Personal care & Seasonal category at Walgreens is Group Vice President and General Merchandise leader Heather Hughes, a trained pharmacist—a rare profile for a retail executive. Her unique background is just what the doctor ordered, as Walgreens looks to reboot the category and take health, beauty, and wellness to the next level of growth and innovation. Heather joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles, to give us a behind the scenes view of what’s new and what’s next.

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.Chang’s is honoring its roots in Asian tradition by celebrating the Year of the Rabbit, offering unique experiences to guests in their kitchens featuring dishes prepared using age old wok centric cooking style. The company has seen its fair share of reboots and restructuring over the years, transitioning from a private, to public, and back to a private equity owned enterprise again. Now, with 300 or more restaurants, in 24 countries and growing, the brand employs about 20,000 people that deliver over $1billion in annual revenue.  

 One of America’s favorite restaurant concepts, offering sit down Asian cuisine, and well known for their iconic warrior horse outside their locations, P.F.Chang’s is growing into a more dynamic brand under the leadership of CEO Damola Adamolekun. His reboot-in-progress is creating new experiences and consumer loyalty that is accelerating growth—and he is just getting started. We unpacked his global expansion strategy on the eve of Lunar New Year—of The Rabbit—who are also known to be witty, quick-minded, and ingenious.

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 and the power back to, well, we the people.

Enter media entrepreneur, Kellogg/Northwestern Alum, and one of the world’s most thoughtful rebooters, Tarun Katial. Tarun co-founded coto (come together), to create a next generation social community platform that empowers women to fight back.

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 were holding her back.

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 most every American household with kiddos. Part of a system of family destinations under the bigger umbrella of CEC Entertainment, the brand boasts over 600 restaurants around the globe.  

 With a new CEO joining in January 2020, David McKillips jumped headfirst into a Chuck-E Ball Pit—just as the global pandemic forced all of their locations to close. His decades of experience in family entertainment at Six Flags, DC Comics, Sea World and Sesame Place, were just what the doctor (or the board) ordered for this hands-on transformation and financial restructuring.   

A nightmare of a situation for a first-time, location-based entertainment CEO to encounter on day one, David led the company from an ineludible Chapter 11 filing to quickly launching Pasqually’s Pizza—all while (more importantly) rebooting the iconic brand into a global platform. Together with Chuck E.Cheese, Peter Piper Pizza (a growing regional fresh-made pizza restaurant), and Pasqually’s Pizza and Wings(one of the first virtual kitchen delivery-only brands) the group employs 13,000 people in a market that’s projected to be over $40 billion by 2027.  

To uncover and unpack some of CEC’s  reboot story, David and I had this fascinating chat on The Reboot Chronicles podcast.