founder @reallywireless @thezebraco
Austin, TX
Joined January 2011
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Adam Lyons retweeted
In Texas they told me to stop at Buc-ee's for gas.
I have been to shrines. I have stood in temples that took two hundred years to build.
I was not prepared for the gas station.
There were one hundred and twenty fuel pumps.
I counted them because I did not believe them.
A man beside me was filling a truck the size of my first apartment, and he was not filling it because it was empty.
He was filling it because he was here, and here is where a man fills things.
Inside was a hall so vast I lost the horizon.
A wall of jerky. A wall of fudge I did not know the country produced.
A brisket sandwich handed to me by a man in a beaver costume.
And I want to be clear, the beaver is not a mascot.
The beaver is a saint.
The people speak of him the way my grandmother spoke of the mountain behind her house.
And the bathrooms.
I had been warned about the bathrooms and I had dismissed the warning as the pride of a loud people.
I was wrong to dismiss it.
The bathrooms are famous across the whole state and they have earned it.
I have slept in worse hotels. I nearly bowed upon entering.
A janitor was polishing the floor with the devotion of a man tending a garden he loved, and when I thanked him he said "welcome in," which I have since learned is what Texas says instead of hello, and also instead of I am glad you exist.
I went in for gas. I was inside for ninety minutes.
I came out with fudge, a shirt printed with a joke I do not fully understand, forty dollars of jerky, and a feeling I can only describe as having been to church.
I did not need any of it.
I needed all of it.
I have walked through the great cathedrals of the old world. I lit no candle there.
I lit no candle at Buc-ee's either.
But I did fill the truck.
And I understand now that in Texas, this is the same thing.
Adam Lyons retweeted
USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
🤖 Made with AI
“The master in the art of living draws no distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he is doing, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To himself, he’s always doing both.” -James Michener
Adam Lyons retweeted
Something you’ve probably heard if you are part of a team is concerns around focus:
🙅🏻♀️ “we’re working on too many things”
😵💫 “priorities change quickly”
🙄 “we forget about things that were supposedly important a quarter ago”
✨ “we get shiny object syndrome”
I get it. When you’re building your career or managing a team, you want stability, consistency, and progression. You want to build a domain you can own, you want that area to grow.
You want to know you—the team—will be successful.
But guess what?
Success isn’t guaranteed, it’s made.
And it’s made by teams that obsess over their customers, know their market better than anyone, and snatch opportunity before it goes to someone else. By teams who know star players create outsized outcomes. By teams ambitious enough to try something a little outside their domain. By teams that will lose some, but dust off and go on to the next thing with minimal drama.
So the more experience I get, the more I believe in the obsessively adaptable organization. These are organizations that have the people, culture, and operating model to handle a high rate of change well.
You have an adaptable org when:
- talent is everywhere
- so good ideas can come from anywhere
- teammates are low ego
- leaders don’t build fiefdoms
- everyone talks to customers
- you can mobilize quickly
- you place bets
- you’re not afraid to cut losses
- you care more about what users do and customers say, than what you think
- build > debate
This doesn’t mean you don’t have a vision (critical!) or a strategy (what are you playing for? how will you win?) — it just means you stop being precious about academic consistency and start getting ambitious around actual impact.
So let’s reframe our POV
🙅🏻♀️ “we’re working on too many things”
👍 “we have big ambitions”
😵💫 “priorities change quickly”
💪 “when we see an opportunity, we jump”
🙄 “we forget about things that were supposedly important a quarter ago”
😎 “we’re ok getting it wrong”
✨ “we get shiny object syndrome”
🤖 “ofc we have an AI strategy”
😉 (ok this one is a joke)
But seriously: stop seeing change as a drag on momentum, but rather the fuel that drives the momentum itself.
Build your org for change.
Reward adaptability.
Celebrate learning.
Have fun!
Adam Lyons retweeted
I’m excited to finally announce our $6M seed round led by @InspiredCap
and with participation from an all-star group of angel investors, including @raylewis, @adamlyonsw, @MichaelRabil, @mflaxman, and @typesfaster.
shorturl.at/qzIW2
It’s been a wild journey building consumer products and marketplaces over the last few years. While extremely challenging, it’s even that much more rewarding to uncover and build tools for creators to monetize their passion.
This wouldn’t be possible without our amazing team at @winible, the sports betting community, and our supportive investors!
#creatoreconomy #sportsbetting
Adam Lyons retweeted
maybe there’s something to the idea of needing decentralized network infrastructure after all. all 3 carriers have had massive outages in the last 24hrs cnbc.com/2024/02/22/cellular…
and here it is. this is inevitable. decentralized wireless (DeWi) helps mitigate these type of disruptions. @REALLYWIRELESS, built on our REALLY DeWi network has not been impacted by these outages
reuters.com/technology/cellu…
this is awesome
We're excited to announce a partnership with @Coverage_Critic - one of the alpha users of the DIMO developer APIs
This allows @DIMO_Network users to earn more rewards by putting their data to work improving information about cell network performance.
what does this mean?👇
thank you @Inc
Adam Lyons founded The Zebra, and now he's scaling up his telecom business. Here are his tips for fast growth. @sarahdlynch on.inc.com/vLhkJLu
Advisor and mentor @EugeneAustin thank you your support!
Adam Lyons retweeted
Distributed wireless company REALLY strikes deal with @TMobile
tinyurl.com/3kfyn7w8 #distributedwireless
Adam Lyons retweeted
It’s time to admit that Remote Work doesn’t work. WFH Friday is a 4 day work week. Full WFH is a 2 day work week. Every interaction has to be scheduled, which means a lot of information-sharing doesn’t happen. Remote is a great lifestyle, not a way to build a great company.
A memo I sent to the team last month about changing my mind on remote, and moving the team to SF:
flocrivello.com/changing-my-…
Adam Lyons retweeted
Finally out of stealth! We invested in @REALLYWIRELESS. Founder @adamlyonsw secured an $18M seed round led by @polychain and @m2jr to empower wireless customers. We're thrilled to support their mission: read more on our blog by @unleashcraig #VC #wireless
medium.com/leadership-prevai…
Adam Lyons retweeted
Finally out of stealth!!! @MoonshotsCap is excited to help @adamlyonsw and his team build out his vision for a phone company that people love - imagine that! @unleashcraig #disruption #venturecapital #leadership bizjournals.com/austin/inno/…
Adam Lyons retweeted
@REALLYWIRELESS helps customers compare phone plans and will soon launch its own network using #blockchain technology. The company’s founder previously launched @TheZebraCo. ecs.page.link/U6kiw
Austin's first Decacorn?
Adam Lyons' new startup wants to let people put mini cell towers in their homes or businesses to earn cash — possibly about $275 a month. bizjournals.com/austin/inno/…