Derrick Fung (born October 19, 1987) is an entrepreneur, former foreign exchange trader and contributing writer for Forbes. He is currently the CEO of

Drop Drop, DROP, drops or DROPS may refer to: * Drop (liquid) or droplet, a small volume of liquid ** Eye drops, saline (sometimes mydriatic) drops used as medication for the eyes * Drop (unit), a unit of measure of volume * Falling (physics), allowi ...

. He is best known as the founder and CEO of Tunezy, a music company founded in Toronto, Ontario and now based in New York City. Tunezy was acquired in 2013 by

SFX Entertainment LiveStyle, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based live events conglomerate founded by media entrepreneur Robert F. X. Sillerman. The company was formed in June 2012 as SFX Entertainment—the new incarnation of Sillerman's previous company of the same nam ...

. In 2014, Derrick was listed on the Forbes Top 30 under 30 list in Music.

Early life and education

Derrick grew up in North York, Ontario, Canada. He attended York Mills Collegiate for high school. He is the son of

Cynthia Lai Cynthia Lai ( ; ; October 19, 1954 – October 21, 2022) was a Canadian politician who represented Ward 23 Scarborough North on the Toronto City Council from 2018 to 2022. Background Lai immigrated from Hong Kong and moved to Canada in 1972. ...

, a Toronto city councillor. During high school, he created a site called QualitySheetMusic.com, which was the largest online sheet music community at the time with over 50,000 registered users. After the site gained notoriety, he sold the website to U.S. investors in 2005. After graduating from high school in 2005, Derrick attended the

University of Toronto Scarborough The University of Toronto Scarborough, also known as U of T Scarborough or UTSC, is one of the three campuses that make up the tri-campus system of the University of Toronto. Located in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the campus is set upo ...

where he was enrolled in the

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

(BBA) degree. He was a teaching assistant for courses in Macroeconomics and Intermediate Finance. As part of the undergraduate program, he interned at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

in Marketing,

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...

in Equity Derivative Sales and on the trading floor of

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

in 2009 as the first class after the merger with Bank of America. Fung was awarded the Gordon Cressy Award in 2010 for his leadership potential. In January 2010, Fung worked at the

Clinton Foundation The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was e ...

in New York City as an Intern in the

Clinton Global Initiative The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was es ...

(CGI). He was one of four Canadians chosen that term to assist with the foundation. He was part of the Membership Department, which was responsible for inviting and managing the delegates for the conference. Upon graduation from the University of Toronto, he started working at

CIBC World Markets CIBC World Markets Inc. is the investment banking subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The firm operates as an investment bank both in the domestic and international equity and debt capital markets. The firm provides a variety ...

on the trading floor where he traded Foreign Exchange. During his time at CIBC, Fung concurrently started building Tunezy part-time with former classmate and co-founder, Brandon Chu, who was in finance at Kraft Foods. On Friday, April 22, 2011, one of his former bosses encouraged him to leave to work on Tunezy full-time and provided him with the initial capital to start the business. Fung officially left CIBC to start Tunezy on December 22, 2011, with Brandon following suit a few months later.

Tunezy

Tunezy was officially incorporated in November 2011 and operations began in January 2012, with Derrick as CEO and Brandon as Head of Product. The first engineer at the company was Fung's brother, Darren Fung. The team started working in Fung's living room in Scarborough, Ontario. The initial concept of the platform was that it would become an online "Social Record Label". Tunezy quickly caught the attention of institutional investors and the company raised a seed round of financing from Intertainment Media (TSXV: INT) in early 2012. Tunezy came first at the Entrepreneurship pitch in March 2012 against 32 other companies. The company shifted its vision and presented its new direction at the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' FutureSound Conference in San Francisco in November 2012, and was placed first in the Billboard Innovators Showcase. In October 2013, it was announced that Tunezy would be acquired by

for $900,000. The Tunezy platform was rolled into SFX Entertainment after the acquisition. Fung was made a senior member of the Global Business Development team at SFX Entertainment where he focused on the festival

Tomorrowland Tomorrowland is one of the many themed lands featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions t ...

. Fung was the youngest Vice President at the company at age 26. Fung was a co-chair for

Canadian Music Week Canadian Music Week (or CMW) is an industry conference and music festival held over ten days in Toronto and Ontario, Canada. History Canadian Music Week began in 1981 and has grown to become one of Canada's largest and most influential media a ...

in 2015.

Drop

Fung launched

in 2016 after raising $1 million in venture capital from

ff Venture Capital ff Venture Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage and early-stage funding to technology companies. Headquartered in New York City, ff Venture Capital was founded by John Frankel and Alex Katz in 2008, who a ...

, White Star Capital, Rothenberg Ventures, and HIGHLINE. The company has since raised over $25 million to date in a recent financing led by NEA. The app has won numerous awards including being named by Forbes as one of the top tech apps to manage and save money. The app now claims more than 2 million users across North America. He currently serves as the company's CEO. Derrick is not honoring his commitments to pay out owed money to his Drop app members. He currently owes users 1000s of dollars in redemption.

Awards

*Inducted into the 2014

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

Top 30 under 30 for Music *Named a ''Top 20 under 30 Entrepreneur'' by ''

Profit Profit may refer to: Business and law * Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market * Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit * Profit (real property), a nonpossessory intere ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fung, Derrick 1987 births Living people University of Toronto alumni