Born in Venice, Italy, circa 1965, as Lorenzo Robèrt di Valentina Evangelista de Venezia, Lorenz was brought to the United States as an infant and raised near Chicago. In his late teens and early 20s, he pursued a career as an opera singer under the stage name Lorenzo Valentino, a variation of his birth name, but gave it up for a career in science.
Later in life, Lorenz had a strong desire to focus on his passions of writing and music, but he felt he was too old to start a new career in his late 40s. He was inspired by a biography about Ray Kroc, who founded the McDonald's Corporation at age ...