Michael Lloyd, VMI graduate
“I learned a lot at VMI about how to be effective and am now using that skill set as a business leader to hopefully move the world forward.”
- Michael Lloyd, VMI graduate
Cyber insurance pioneer Michael Lloyd has a passion for entrepreneurship and business development. He’s a strong leader and innovator who doesn’t hesitate to follow his own path.
But unlike many of his colleagues who are MIT and Harvard Business School graduates, Lloyd didn’t start out at an Ivy League school, or even an Ivy adjacent one. Instead, the man who’d someday sell his homegrown startup, Corvus Insurance, to insurance behemoth Travelers Companies, Inc., for $435 million graduated from Virginia Military Institute, a top-ranked college in the mountains of western Virginia with a longstanding history of producing business leaders and innovators.
A Michigan native, Lloyd came to VMI for the chance to play on the college’s NCAA Division I soccer team. He also embraced VMI’s rigorous academics and graduated as the valedictorian of his class. “(At VMI), it’s very clear what you need to do to be successful,” he said.
After graduating from VMI in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Lloyd earned a master’s degree from MIT — a school recommended to him by a VMI faculty member who was an MIT alumnus.
“I grew up in a small town and didn’t know one person who went to MIT,” said Lloyd. “My parents didn’t go to college, let alone a school like MIT. So it was something where I thought, ‘If someone who went there thinks I could get in and thrive, I should at least try.’”
At MIT, Lloyd became interested in technology startups and found his passion for entrepreneurship. “I became obsessed with being an entrepreneur. In my opinion, entrepreneurship is a great career choice for people who want to move the world, and that is what I wanted to do.”
Like a VMI cadetship and engineering, starting his own company complemented Lloyd’s intrinsic characteristics and skills — many of which he says were honed at the institute. At the core of entrepreneurship, he explained, are hard work, innovation and leadership. “(Entrepreneurship) really resonated with me. I like to work hard, I like to take smart risks, I am comfortable with uncertainty and I like to lead more than follow,” said Lloyd.
Michael Lloyd with his daughters at VMI
In 2015, Lloyd earned an MBA from Harvard Business School before moving on to co-found Corvus, which he described as “100% insurance and 100% technology.” The business focuses on providing protection against cyberattacks for businesses in the United States and Europe.
On the tech side of the company, which was largely Lloyd’s focus, Corvus developed a unique program to assess a company’s risk of suffering a cyberattack. It detects what is seen publicly on a website regarding IT assets, and it spots the weaknesses factoring into a company’s vulnerability to hackers like email servers, open ports, passwords in plain text and more. The goal, of course, was to sell the insurance policy, but the hope was to reduce Corvus’ risk as an insurance provider and simultaneously protect customers by giving advice and feedback.
Since selling Corvus, Lloyd has continued along his entrepreneurial path by creating Five Bays Capital, which invests, advises and incubates high-potential companies. One of the companies is Pine View Insurance Group, a property and casualty insurance agency for personal insurance — such as homes, vehicles and the like.
Looking back on his VMI story, Lloyd said his college years were a large part of preparing him to be an effective leader and entrepreneur. “I love the fact that VMI is a place where you get out what you put in,” said Lloyd. “I learned a lot at VMI about how to be effective and am now using that skill set as a business leader to hopefully move the world forward.”
For more information, visit vmi.edu.
