09–21-2025An Entrepreneur's $70M Success Formula: Authenticity, Networking and More with Kris Dehnert + Others, Episode #270


Our Featured Guest for Sunday, September 21, 2025 is Kris Dehnert

Kris Dehnert is a serial entrepreneur and the powerhouse founder behind Dugout Mugs®, BIGG Golf, and Dehnert Media Group. Since 2010, Kris has generated nearly $70 million in online sales, with $52 million from Dugout Mugs alone. His ventures have landed on the Inc. 5000 list three years in a row (2021–2023) and have been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, Tampa Business & Wealth, and the TBBJ Fast50. Kris’s work has also gained national media attention, with appearances on ABC World News Tonight, Fox & Friends, CBS Morning, NBC, the TODAY Show, and The View. Through his companies, Kris has become a leader in eCommerce, branding, and premium gifting, building brands that have become household names in both the baseball and golf worlds.

Kris launched Dehnert Media Group early in his career and over the past 15 years, he has worked across a wide variety of industries—real estate, apparel, hard goods, affiliate marketing, strategic partnerships—but his true expertise lies in eCommerce and social media marketing. Through these channels, he has surpassed $65 million in online sales and has built, scaled, and advised multiple successful ventures.

At Dehnert Media Group, Kris consults with businesses in sales, marketing, eCommerce, and social media. The firm has worked with celebrities, athletes, and executives to build brand value, expand social reach, and drive sales. His mission is simple: “Help them do what they are doing, better than they are currently doing it.” Occasionally, Kris identifies “unicorn” opportunities—companies with both strong potential and visionary leadership—where he goes all in as a partner and operator.

Kris’s most notable venture is Dugout Mugs®, a company creating one-of-a-kind gifts for baseball fans. Their flagship product, the Dugout Mug®, is the barrel of a baseball bat hollowed out to form a drinking mug. Other products include: WINED UP™ – a mini baseball bat wine glass, SHORTSTOP™ – a bat barrel whiskey/coffee cup, KNOB SHOT™ – a patented bat handle shot glass and SEASON OPENER™ – a bat handle bottle opener.

All products are officially licensed with MLB, MiLB, MLBPA, and the Hall of Fame and have been showcased by top baseball organizations. Dugout Mugs has become a leader in the premium gifting and corporate gifting markets.

Dugout Mugs was born in 2014 when Randall Thompson, then coaching at Florida Tech, cut off the top of a baseball bat to demonstrate a hitting concept. Looking at the barrel sitting in the dugout, he thought: “I could definitely drink from a bat!” The rest is history.

Kris also runs BIGG Golf, a passion project offering fun and unique products for golf lovers. BIGG Golf manufactures distance golf balls, custom golf balls, premium cigars, cigar holders, and other golf-related items designed to bring enjoyment to the game.

Read more at: https://dugoutmugs.com/ and at: https://bigggolf.com/

Our Entrepreneur Presenters:

Alex Yancher is the co-founder of Passport, a company helping DTC and marketplace brands scale globally. Passport simplifies international expansion, enabling ecommerce businesses to navigate cross-border shipping, local compliance, and tariff changes while maximizing growth and customer satisfaction.

Passport turns international markets into major revenue drivers. The company offers store localization, accurate duty and tax calculations, reliable DDP shipping to over 180 countries, in-country enablement, duty drawback support, expert tax and regulatory guidance, and local banking and payment options. With seamless integrations to platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and logistics partners including Flexport and ShipBob, Passport makes going global simple.

Combining advanced technology, in-house logistics, and deep industry expertise, Passport helps brands ship globally in as little as 48 hours, manage local storefronts, and stay compliant across 220+ markets. The company’s team of 200 professionals across 20 countries provides dedicated support to drive profitable, seamless international growth.

Before founding Passport, Alex served as COO at Pantry, transforming fresh food retail, and held finance roles at Facebook and Morgan Stanley. He also advises and invests in startups, providing strategic guidance and support to growing companies. 

Read more at: https://passportglobal.com/

Jim Mirochnik is a Senior Partner at HALOCK and the CEO of Reasonable Risk. He is an innovative business leader with over 25 years of technology and management consulting experience, having founded and partnered with multiple companies. He has architected large-scale technology programs exceeding $100 million in budget and is recognized as both a hands-on practitioner and proven business leader.

For over 20 years, HALOCK has helped organizations mature their information security programs and respond to critical incidents. The company’s service philosophy uses risk management to apply just the right amount of security to protect critical assets—not too much, not too little. HALOCK’s core offerings include risk assessments and management, compliance with standards like PCI DSS and HIPAA, penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, malware defense, incident response, and security products and engineering services. Privately owned and headquartered in Schaumburg, IL, HALOCK serves clients from mid-sized companies to the Fortune 100 across industries such as financial services, healthcare, legal, education, energy, SaaS/cloud, and enterprise retail.

At Reasonable Risk, Jim leads a team redefining security standards for U.S. businesses. By collaborating with top security practitioners, regulators, and courts, they developed a framework now used by U.S. courts, the federal government, and the Center for Internet Security. The framework helps companies protect their business, partners, customers, and employees.

Reasonable Risk offers the Proven Governance System™, a SaaS GRC platform with Duty of Care Risk Analysis (DoCRA) built in, providing a sensible and defensible cybersecurity position. The platform consolidates all risk management needs, including project management for risk identification and prioritization, communication with the C-Suite in business terms, and tracking security risk to demonstrate program effectiveness. It enables executives and security teams to align on priorities, justify budgets, and establish a legally defensible cybersecurity program. 

Read more at: https://www.reasonablerisk.com/ and at: https://www.halock.com/