The Reboot Chronicles with Dean DeBiase

Dean DeBiase
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The Reboot Chronicles Show with Dean DeBiase, highlights the world’s top leaders & CEO’s through engaging peer-to-peer conversations that audiences love, available wherever you get podcasts, with thousands of listeners, watchers, readers, and fans. - - About Host: Named “Growth Guru” by Inc., Dean DeBiase is a WSJ best-selling author, Forbes Contributor, speaker, Kellogg/Northwestern faculty member—and award-winning serial CEO who has led dozens of companies across diverse sectors, creating hundreds of products, thousands of jobs, and billions of dollars in revenue, capital, and value.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    From The Set Of ABC’s Hit Show The Rookie To Republic Rum Founder, Eric Winter - Actor/Entrepreneur

    Eric Winter didn't take one path. He took all of them.  At once. The actor, best known as the no-nonsense Sergeant Tim Bradford on ABC's smash hit The Rookie, was once a pre-med student at UCLA on track to become a doctor. Then nearly a paramedic with the LA Fire Department, then a model, a soap opera actor, parallel paths until something clicked. While producing TV movies, pitching shows, and spinning up a podcast, another story was unfolding.  On a trip to Puerto Rico to meet his future father-in-law he discovered an unexpected obsession with premium rum. That obsession became Palm Republic, an award-winning premium rum brand, 20 years in the making, now redefining what rum can be in one of the most crowded and competitive spirit markets in the world. But the headline in Eric’s story isn’t that he succeeded — it’s that he juggled it all at the same time without a playbook.  Just the ambition to be a creator and build something to influence a category grounded in family and culture.   On this episode of The Reboot Chronicles Podcast, we sit down with Eric Winter, actor, producer, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Palm Republic Rum, to unpack one of the most multidimensional reboot stories we've heard. Eric breaks down how a pre-med student from LA ended up on one of network television's fastest-growing shows.  He explains why he built a rum brand instead of chasing the celebrity tequila wave.  We discuss how patience and rejection prepared him for entrepreneurship better than any business school could.  We explore his ambition for the brand and where he wants to take Palm Republic next.

    34 min

  2. 6 DAYS AGO

    Going Bankrupt Over a Doorbell: How Jamie Siminoff Inventor & Founder of Ring Changed the Game

    Jamie Siminoff had bet everything; his savings, his family's security, and his reputation, on reinventing a device from the 1800s. At the time, he had no salary, almost no cash, and a company on the edge of bankruptcy. He had been rejected on Shark Tank with only days of runway left, not to mention a court-enforced restraining order from ADT effectively halting sales. He had $187,000 in the bank to barely cover operating expenses and needed just short of $1Million dollars to secure a four-letter domain name that could carry the brand. He was certain he was making one of the biggest mistakes in entrepreneurial history. And yet, Ring survived, and what followed became one of the most unfiltered, hard-earned comeback stories in modern entrepreneurship, ending with an acquisition by Amazon for over $1 billion with more than 100 million cameras deployed in homes worldwide. On this episode of The Reboot Chronicles Podcast, we sit down with Jamie Siminoff, inventor, and founder of Ring, to unpack one of the most unfiltered founder stories in modern tech. From the sleepless nights and bold bets to the mission-driven stubbornness that turned a simple doorbell into a global security platform. Jamie shares how he survived rejection, lawsuits, and the edge of bankruptcy. Why mission consistently outweighs money as his core motivator, and how Ring is positioning itself at the center of the AI economy by transforming more than 100 million cameras into an intelligent home platform. He opens up about his new book, Ding Dong, describing it as part business memoir and part therapy session, and one of the most honest accounts of what building a consequential, mission-based company is all about.  Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts or at RebootChronicles.com

    35 min

  3. 24 MAR

    A Legacy on the Brink & the Leader Who Hit Reset

    The warning signs were there, but the fall was still dramatic. A telecom powerhouse that once traded at $50 had slipped to nearly a dollar, burdened by debt, declining revenue, and a legacy architecture that couldn’t keep pace with the data-driven world emerging around it. Internally, the mission narrowed to survival — renew contracts, slow the erosion, hold the line. But survival mode doesn’t win in an AI-accelerated market. So Lumen hit reset. It shed non-core assets, restructured its balance sheet, and made the hard pivot from preserving the old to building for what’s next. On this episode of The Reboot Chronicles, Kate Johnson, CEO of Lumen Technologies, joins us to break down how she’s leading one of the boldest reinventions in modern infrastructure. We explore the cultural reboot she prioritized on day one, the shift from telecom to platform, and how Lumen is rebuilding itself to power the AI economy for the long haul. https://youtu.be/wgHoZWKKnP8

    34 min

  4. 17 MAR

    Balazs Fejes: Leading with Discipline in an Age of Disruption

    Most global technology companies start as tight-knit engineering teams, but only a few manage to scale into organizations of tens of thousands without facing moments that fundamentally reshape how they operate. Growth at that level is about navigating inflection points that test a company’s identity, resilience, and ability to adapt. Rapid expansion, unexpected crises, and shifting market forces all play a role, and in today’s landscape those pressures are accelerating as AI, geopolitical uncertainty, and enterprise-wide transformation redefine how companies build technology and compete. On this episode of The Reboot Chronicles, we speak with Balazs Fejes, CEO of EPAM Systems, to explore how the company transformed from a small Eastern European engineering shop into a $5.5 billion global leader in digital engineering and consulting. We unpack the leadership lessons that come from scaling through crises, the operational discipline required to build engineering organizations at global scale, and why companies that successfully industrialize AI—not just experiment with it—will define the next decade of enterprise transformation.

    32 min

  5. 10 MAR

    Andrew McLaughlin on Quantum-Ready AI for Real-World Enterprise

    As AI adoption accelerates, the industry is gaining speed—but so is the challenge of separating substantive innovation from the surrounding noise. While today’s language models excel at generating text, many still fall short when the work requires scientific accuracy, computational rigor, or decisions with material business impact. That performance gap is where enterprise value—and competitive advantage—will be defined. On this episode of The Reboot Chronicles, Dean DeBiase speaks with Andrew McLaughlin, COO of Sandbox AQ,, about what it takes to build AI systems that operate beyond conversational use cases. Their discussion focuses on AI applied to molecular modeling, post-quantum cybersecurity, advanced medical diagnostics, and resilient navigation technologies—areas where precision, verification, and real-world reliability matter as much as innovation. At the center of the conversation is a strategic question for leaders and operators: Can AI evolve from producing fluent language to generating scientifically grounded, decision-ready insight? Andrew outlines why that shift is essential for enterprises preparing for quantum disruption, modernizing critical infrastructure, and accelerating R&D cycles.

    43 min

  6. 3 MAR

    The Race To Reclaim Critical Minerals, Gary C. Evans - CEO of Antimony

    When one of the world’s largest antimony mines went offline, the world didn’t just lose a mineral source—it exposed a geopolitical fault line. China, which controlled the mine and most of the global supply, began restricting exports as reserves tightened. Suddenly, the materials behind ammunition, advanced optics, semiconductor manufacturing, and even renewable energy systems were in question. A mineral most people had never heard of became a pressure point for national security and global industry. On this episode of The Reboot Chronicles we sit down with someone at the center of the solution: Gary C. Evans of U.S. Antimony. We explore how antimony became a strategic flashpoint, why the U.S. is racing to rebuild domestic capacity, and how Evans is steering the company into a pivotal leadership role in the critical-minerals landscape.

    32 min

  7. 24 FEB

    Shut Down or Start Over: Brad Charron, CEO of ALOHA on Rebuilding a Brand

    The best reboots don’t start with a flashy roadmap. They require honesty and reflection with courage to make consequential decisions swiftly.  When a company is bleeding cash, stuck in the past, and getting further from what customers want, you eventually hit a fork in the road. Do you strip it down and rebuild, or walk away and call it a day? It’s a tough decision as it forces leaders become refounders; to build trust and create a culture the team can rally behind with a vision for success.   To be an Entrepreneur you must believe in your ability to solve problems. Trying to be perfect is the enemy of progress but sometimes you have to take a risk.  On this week’s episode of the Reboot Chronicles we talk with a fellow refounder and professional rebooter Brad Charron,  CEO of Aloha. committed to building a great brand that screams optimism backed by human values.   What Brad inherited wasn’t a rocket ship. It was a beloved brand attached to a failing idea, buried under too many SKUs, a culture that had gone toxic, and losses so severe that the easiest answer would have been to call it. Instead, Brad rebuilt Aloha around a new set of priorities: fewer products, real ingredients and an employee-owned operating model rooted in transparency and accountability.  Can you really have a relationship with a brand?  According to Aloha, yes you can!

    35 min

  8. 17 FEB

    Purpose Meets Profit: Deputy CEO Silvija Martincevic on Empowering Global Shift Workers

    The global economy doesn’t run on boardrooms. It runs on the people who keep the real world moving. They’re the ones staffing hospitals and elder care centers, keeping restaurants humming through the dinner rush, unloading trucks before sunrise, and holding retail together during the most chaotic shopping weeks of the year. They are essential — and they are everywhere. Yet for decades, the systems built to support them have been designed around office life. Schedules go up late. Communication breaks down. Policies feel inconsistent. But when those barriers start to lift — when people get clarity, consistency, and tools that actually fit the way they work — the job becomes something you can take pride in again, and the entire operation runs stronger because of it. Few leaders understand that opportunity better than Silvija Martincevic, CEO of Deputy. With a career spent scaling global companies and building billion-dollar businesses, she now leads a workforce management platform used by millions of shift workers and thousands of businesses across more than 100 countries. Before Deputy, Silvija helped companies grow into billion-dollar brands, forged partnerships with Walmart, Amazon, American Airlines, and Target, and increased revenue from $100 million to well over $1 billion. At Groupon, she built a $1 billion international business while serving as CMO and GM of its Health & Beauty division. Today, we’ll break down her work, her leadership philosophy, and the lessons she’s learned building high-growth companies that serve both scale and purpose.

    34 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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About

The Reboot Chronicles Show with Dean DeBiase, highlights the world’s top leaders & CEO’s through engaging peer-to-peer conversations that audiences love, available wherever you get podcasts, with thousands of listeners, watchers, readers, and fans. - - About Host: Named “Growth Guru” by Inc., Dean DeBiase is a WSJ best-selling author, Forbes Contributor, speaker, Kellogg/Northwestern faculty member—and award-winning serial CEO who has led dozens of companies across diverse sectors, creating hundreds of products, thousands of jobs, and billions of dollars in revenue, capital, and value.

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