# Stephen Lane

> Stephen Lane is the co-founder and former CEO and executive chairman of Flyhomes, where an airline-rewards brokerage evolved into a service helping mortgage buyers make cash offers. Now CEO of FamilyBacked and Tufa, he is developing a family-supported home-financing model. His background includes Microsoft, J.P. Morgan and a JD-MBA at Northwestern.

- **Role:** CEO at FamilyBacked and Tufa
- **Organizations:** FamilyBacked, Tufa, Flyhomes, Insurify, Microsoft, J.P. Morgan
- **Education:** MBA, Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management, JD, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Bachelor’s degree, The University of Texas at Austin
- **Known for:** Co-founded Flyhomes in 2015., Led Flyhomes during development of its cash-offer service., FamilyBacked’s biography credits his Flyhomes tenure with more than $2 billion in funded home loans and around 3,000 families helped.

## Career timeline

- **2007** — Listed as number 26, a running back, on the University of Texas football roster.
- **2008-2011** — Worked as an associate at J.P. Morgan.
- **2011-2013** — Worked as a finance manager at Microsoft.
- **2015** — Co-founded Flyhomes with Tushar Garg and introduced an online brokerage with airline-mile rewards.
- **2016** — Graduated from Northwestern; listed among Zell Fellows alumni.
- **2018** — Served as Flyhomes CEO as the company expanded its Cash Offers program and announced a $17 million funding round.
- **2019-2023** — Served as Flyhomes executive chairman, following his CEO tenure, according to the public career listing.
- **2022-2024** — Worked as head of ventures at Insurify.
- **2024** — Launched Tufa with Matt Hasten as a cashback-supported fundraising startup.
- **2026** — Public company biographies identify him as CEO of FamilyBacked and Tufa; Tufa describes its home-financing fund as pre-launch.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Flyhomes in 2015.
- Led Flyhomes during development of its cash-offer service.
- FamilyBacked’s biography credits his Flyhomes tenure with more than $2 billion in funded home loans and around 3,000 families helped.
- Northwestern Zell Fellow, class of 2016.
- Co-founded Tufa with Matt Hasten.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — As checked October 21, FamilyBacked and Tufa’s public biographies identify Lane as CEO. Tufa’s current home-fund website says it is not yet available and no securities are being offered or sold; this is a verification date, not an asserted announcement date.
- **2024-11** — Launched Tufa’s original cashback fundraising model with Matt Hasten; reporting described a bootstrapped team of about ten and 12,000 participating retailers.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenmlane

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/stephen-lane
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21