Robert Stephens | Geek Squad Founder

Robert Stephens

Geek Squad Founder

Fee Range
$30,000
Travels From
San Francisco, CA, United States

Robert Stephens
Biography

A native of Chicago, Robert left a scholarship at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1990 to pursue a degree in computer science at the University of Minnesota. While attending the University, he landed a job fixing computers for the Human Factors Research Laboratory. Over a three year period, he rose to become head engineer of the lab while earning scholarships from the U.S. Navy and the FAA building flight and driving simulators. It was also during this time he started a computer consulting business.

In April 1994, after three years at the University, he formed The Geek Squad with $200. In 2002, The Geek Squad acquired by Best Buy and opened Geek Squad precincts in all Best Buy US and Canadian stores. With over 6000 Agents , The Geek Squad is now North America's largest technology support company offering phone, in-store, and in-home support.

Stephens is the author of The Geek Squad Guide to Solving Any Computer Glitch, released in 1999 by Fireside. In plain English and with a humorous flair, The Geek Squad Guide demystifies the most widely used hardware and software, offers quick fixes to common glitches, and provides smart maintenance advice to keep things running smoothly.

To date, The Geek Squad has serviced over 150,000 computer problems for clients such as 3M, Cargill, General Mills, The Rolling Stones, U2, and The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. The Geek Squad story has been featured in numerous national media including CNN, Newsweek, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, People, Rolling Stone, and InStyle Magazine.

Robert Stephens
Featured Video

Current: Robert Stephens - Keynote 2013

Time 26:54

Disruptive Innovation and Technology
Lessons from the Startup & C-Suite Life

New technologies disrupt through innovation, and no one is better equipped to prepare audiences with lessons learned on disruptive innovation than Robert Stephens. As founder of Geek Squad and former CTO of Best Buy, he has seen the whole spectrum of technological change and innovation since the Internet boom. Robert, who’s changing the game again with his AI-powered chatbot service Assist, shares key strategies from his entrepreneurial career for fostering and leading innovation within organizations of all sizes, as well as insights on what you need to know about how new and disruptive trends and technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence will impact the market and redefine business in the future. Billion-dollar R&D budgets are no longer a necessity for innovation—all you need is a change in mindset, Robert says. He also explains how leaders can develop a vision for spotting future trends, linear and non-linear, and use them to ignite curiosity, improve processes, explore new possibilities, or pivot your business.

From Geeks to Bots
An Entrepreneur’s Story

Tech visionary Robert Stephens has built and run companies both big and small – he founded Geek Squad in 1994 and later sold it to Best Buy, where he worked for 10 years as CTO. His latest venture is the AI-powered chatbot service Assist, which is already changing the game for business, much like Geek Squad did more than 20 years ago. Now, he’s providing an exclusive behind-the-scenes look on his rise to becoming one of America’s most innovative and successful entrepreneurs and businessmen. Drawing on his expansive perspective as a startup founder to c-suite Fortune 500 executive and back again, he shares forward-thinking lessons that others can use to grow business, leverage disruptive trends like blockchain and artificial intelligence, and spark innovation. He also discusses the importance of thoughtful brand management to differentiating yourself in the marketplace among customers and employees, and ways to create a culture of risk-taking and creativity within established companies. Robert delves into Geek Squad’s legacy in helping companies everywhere realize that everyone is in the business of service—or should be—with the power to listen and solve problems with readily accessible technology, and a startup’s thirst to succeed.

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Robert Stephens

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