Adam Lyons

Lyons grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended Taylor Allderdice High School.[3] He dropped out of high school when he was 15 years old and had odd jobs until he became an insurance underwriter.[4] Lyons was taking classes at a local community college when he was recruited by the Risk Management & Insurance Department at Temple University.[5] He graduated from Temple University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Fox School of Business.[6]

Lyons worked in the insurance industry, starting at Lloyd's of London as a broker and underwriter.[7] Later, he worked as an underwriter for All Risks Insurance, one of the largest US insurance wholesalers.[8][9]

In 2012, Lyons founded The Zebra.[10] Lyons began to look for investors for the new business venture and partnered with Mark Cuban, after pitching the startup over a cold email.[7][4] Later, Cuban noted he liked the concept of The Zebra and commented on Lyons' succinct writing style.[10] Adam also partnered with Mike Maples, Jr., an early investor in Twitter and Lyft[11] of Floodgate Fund, UK billionaire Simon Nixon of Moneysupermarket.com.[12] and Silverton Partners based in Austin, Texas.[10] After securing $4.5 million in seed funding in 2013, Lyons relocated the company to Austin, TX.[2]

In 2015, Lyons was named to Inc. Magazine's 30 Under 30 list.[13] He was recognized as a finalist for the 2016 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award[14] and also made Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2017.[15]

In 2018, Lyons left The Zebra to explore other ventures including the development of a reality TV show with the Pilgrim Media Group in Los Angeles.[16][17]