The Staten Island, New York, native studied business and economics at Bucknell, then spent six years at three banks before quitting to start a company-any company. He and two childhood friends came up with the Pit, an online trading card marketplace they sold in 2001 for $6 million. After becoming a new parent, Lore dropped out of Wharton to cofound Diapers.com; Amazon bought it in 2010 for $500 million in cash, then reportedly shut it down in 2017. Next was Jet.com, an e-commerce take on Costco that Walmart bought for $3.3 billion in 2016 and shuttered in 2020; Lore stayed on to run the retail giant's online arm until 2021.
Later that year, he teamed up with retired New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez on a deal to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx for about $1.5 billion-to be paid in four installments through 2024. Lore and A-Rod completed the first two rounds, paying an estimated $550 million for roughly 40%. (Lore's slice is about 25%.) The third installment ended up in arbitration amid a dispute over whether the duo met a ...