The auto industry has had its share of problems over the last decade and needs yet another reboot. During that time, carparts.com Inc., (NASDAQ:PRTS) has become a force to reckon with, when it comes to parts and accessories. They’ve grown to become one of the leading e-commerce providers of auto industry after-market parts—and a one-stop shop for vehicle repair and maintenance needs. With 1500 employees and revenue over $660 million last year, up 14% year over year (YOY), the company saw a strong Q1 23—reporting net sales increase of 6% YOY to $175.5 million vs year ago, and an increase of 20% on a two year stack.

Raoul Pal, “looks at the real world picture and sees how it’s playing out and tries to place bets accordingly.” Co-founder of RealVision, Exponential Age Asset Management, Global Macro Investor, and Science Magic Studios, he has a different take on the state of the financial industry and how you can play in it to win.

Raoul joined me for an episode of The Reboot Chronicles, to explore investor optionality in the roaring 20’s—from crypto and Bitcoin to NFT’s, alternative assets, and more.

Like many of you, I was an early reader of Entrepreneur Magazine. First published in 1976, it has been a go-to source for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs for decades—and is now read by millions of people around the world. The groups thoughtful and talented Editor in Chief, Jason Feifer, has been rebooting Entrepreneur into a broader platform, while hosting two podcasts—Problem Solvers and Help Wanted—and writing a new book, Build For Tomorrow.

As tax season hits its peak, and Intuit’s (NASDAQ:INTU) 100 million customers scramble to meet deadlines across the globe, the company is rebooting itself to leverage technologies that will make it easier.

After a Core Reboot was initiated four years ago, they began to focus on building the next-generation AI enabled capabilities—transitioning from customers doing most of the work to an AI generative platform that does work for customers. They seem to be hitting on the big three cylinders I look for in smart growth/innovation BBB Reboots: Building (R&D) their own new tech./capabilities, Buying (acquiring), Borrowing (partnering).

Leading that charge is Intuit’s CEO, Sasan Goodarzi. With all the hype about leveraging generative AI, like Open AI’s ChatGPT, many companies—even Google and Facebook—are frantically scrambling to deploy it before it disrupts them. Since Sassan and his team were already on a mission to build an AI expert driven platform, they were ready for the coming data revolution.

Sasan joined me for an episode of the Reboot Chronicles to take an inside look at how they have developed their growth and innovation roadmaps—and how it may position them strategically in a Crypto/Web3 world.

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.