Derrick Fung

Last updated
Derrick Fung
Born
Derrick Charles Fung

(1987-10-19) October 19, 1987 (age 36)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality Canadian
Alma mater University of Toronto Scarborough
OccupationCEO of Drop Former CEO of Tunezy

Derrick Fung (born October 19, 1987) is an entrepreneur, former foreign exchange trader and contributing writer for Forbes. [1] He is currently the CEO of Drop. 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. [2] In 2014, Derrick was listed on the Forbes Top 30 under 30 list in Music. [3]

Contents

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, 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. [4] 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 where he was enrolled in the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree. [5] He was a teaching assistant for courses in Macroeconomics and Intermediate Finance. As part of the undergraduate program, he interned at Microsoft in Marketing, BNP Paribas in Equity Derivative Sales and on the trading floor of Merrill Lynch 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. [6]

In January 2010, Fung worked at the Clinton Foundation in New York City as an Intern in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). [7] 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 on the trading floor where he traded Foreign Exchange. During his time at CIBC, Fung concurrently started building Tunezy part-time with former classmate [8] and co-founder, Brandon Chu, who was in finance at Kraft Foods. [9] 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. [10] Fung officially left CIBC to start Tunezy on December 22, 2011, with Brandon following suit a few months later. [8]

Tunezy

Tunezy was officially incorporated in November 2011 and operations began in January 2012, with Derrick as CEO and Brandon as Head of Product. [11] The first engineer at the company was Fung's brother, Darren Fung. The team started working in Fung's living room in Scarborough, Ontario[ citation needed ]. 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. [12]

Tunezy came first at the Entrepreneurship pitch in March 2012 against 32 other companies. [13] The company shifted its vision and presented its new direction at the Billboard FutureSound Conference in San Francisco in November 2012, and was placed first in the Billboard Innovators Showcase. [14] In October 2013, it was announced that Tunezy would be acquired by SFX Entertainment for $900,000. [2] [15] 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. [16] Fung was the youngest Vice President at the company at age 26. Fung was a co-chair for Canadian Music Week in 2015. [17]

Drop

Fung launched Drop in 2016 after raising $1 million in venture capital from ff Venture Capital, White Star Capital, Rothenberg Ventures, and HIGHLINE. [18] The company has since raised over $25 million to date in a recent financing led by NEA. [19] The app has won numerous awards including being named by Forbes as one of the top tech apps to manage and save money. [20] The app now claims more than 2 million users across North America. [21] He currently serves as the company's CEO.

Fung has been criticized for Drop not honoring its commitment to pay out owed money to members. The app currently owes users thousands of dollars in unredeemable points.

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce</span> Canadian banking institution

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was formed through the 1961 merger of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada, in the largest merger between chartered banks in Canadian history. It is one of two "Big Five" banks founded in Toronto, the other being the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Craig Wireless Systems, Ltd. is a Canadian company which offers Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service in Manitoba and British Columbia.

Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used for remixes. It also operates a specialized music streaming service oriented towards DJs.

Robert Francis Xavier Sillerman was an American businessman and media entrepreneur. Sillerman was the owner of a range of television and radio stations during the 1970s and 1980s, In 1993 he formed SFX Broadcasting, and then built SFX Entertainment—a concert and stage performance promoter that was sold to Clear Channel in 2000 for $4.4 billion. He refounded SFX Entertainment in 2012 as a promoter of electronic music festivals; that company is now known as LiveStyle. He is also the founder of Viggle and the namesake of The Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University. Once on the Forbes 400 list, he also briefly owned the WLAF's New York/New Jersey Knights.

Richard William Nesbitt is a Canadian financial executive who currently manages KalNes Capital Partners' partner. Previously, he was the president and CEO of Global Risk Institute and CEO of Toronto Stock Exchange.

Keek was a free online social networking service that allowed its users to upload video status updates, which were called "keeks". Users could post keeks to the Keek website using a webcam or via the Keek mobile apps for iPhone, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, or Android. Users could also reply back with text or video comments, known as "keekbacks", and share content to other major social media networks. There was also an embed option so users could embed their keeks into a blog or website.

CIBC Mellon is a joint venture founded in 1996 between the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and then Mellon Financial Corporation to offer asset servicing to institutional investors. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, it comprises two sister companies, CIBC Mellon Trust company and CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jingle Punks Music</span>

Jingle Punks Music is a music publishing and licensing company headquartered in New York, NY, founded by Jared Gutstadt and Dan Demole in October 2008. The company provides original and licensed music for television, film, video games, and advertisements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Block, Inc.</span> American financial services company

Block, Inc. is a U.S. public company founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2009. It is a financial technology conglomerate, reportedly serving 56 million users and 4 million businesses, with an annual payment processing volume of US$228 billion as of 2023.

Songkick is a concert discovery service owned by Warner Music Group. The service allows users to search for upcoming concert events in their area, and also track individual artists to receive notifications of upcoming shows in their area. It also provides services for artist teams to manage and promote tour dates globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taskrabbit</span> American online task marketplace

TaskRabbit, Inc. d/b/a TaskRabbit operates an online marketplace that matches freelance labor with local demand, allowing people to find help with tasks including personal assistance, furniture assembly, moving, delivery, and handyman work. The company was founded in 2008 by Leah Busque and was acquired by an affiliate of IKEA in 2017.

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 name, which was sold to Clear Channel Communications in 2000 and later spun-off as Live Nation in 2005.

Life in Color was a United States-based EDM event company, best known for their "paint party" Life in Color concert tours. The company was founded by Sebastian Solano, Paul Campbell, Lukasz Tracz and Patryk Tracz as Committee Entertainment and the concert tour Dayglow in 2006. Billed by its organizers as the "world's largest paint party", the tour features performances by electronic musicians, joined by artistic performers and the tour's signature spraying of the audience with paint throughout the show. The company changed to its current name shortly after it was acquired by Robert F. X. Sillerman's SFX Entertainment in late 2012, with the original founders remaining as partners.

Clinkle was a mobile payments company founded in 2012. In 2013 they raised $25 million and the product launched to college students on September 24, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpine Data Labs</span> Environment for analytics

Alpine Data Labs is an advanced analytics interface working with Apache Hadoop and big data. It provides a collaborative, visual environment to create and deploy analytics workflow and predictive models. This aims to make analytics more suitable for business analyst level staff, like sales and other departments using the data, rather than requiring a "data engineer" or "data scientist" who understands languages like MapReduce or Pig.

The Committee is an EDM event production group founded in 2006 as Committee Entertainment by Sebastian Solano, Paul Campbell, Lukasz Tracz, and Patryk Tracz. At the time all four founders were friends and college students in Florida, and they originally started the Committee as an informal party promotion team. Since then, Committee Entertainment has founded the Dayglow tour series and Life in Color, an international EDM concert company. After jointly selling Dayglow/Life in Color to SFX Entertainment in 2012, all four members remained partners, and as of 2015 they continue to operate both Life in Color and Committee Entertainment. On January 5, 2015, Forbes included Life in Color CEO Solano on their annual list of "30 Under 30 In Music" for 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Handy (company)</span> American home services marketplace company

Handy is an online two-sided marketplace for residential cleaning, installation, and other home services. Founded in 2012 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the now New York–based company operates services in United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The company was acquired by ANGI Homeservices in October 2018.

Justin Yoshimura is an American technology entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the holding company CSC Generation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courtne Smith</span> Canadian-American entrepreneur

Courtne Smith is a Canadian-American entrepreneur.

Apoorva Mehta is a billionaire Indo-Canadian businessman and the founder of Instacart and Cloud Health Systems. As of September 2023 he had a net worth of $1.1 billion, owing to his 10% ownership share of Instacart and his stake in Cloud Health Systems.

References

  1. ↑ "How A Business Is Like An Airplane". Forbes.
  2. 1 2 "SFX Beefing Up Digital Capabilities, Plans to Buy Tunezy, Fame House and Arc90". Billboard.
  3. ↑ "2014 30 under 30: Music". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Get to know a Toronto startup: Tunezy". BlogTO.
  5. ↑ "Management student selected for prestigious New York internship". ose.utsc.utoronto.ca.
  6. ↑ "2010 Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Awards Ceremony". University of Toronto.
  7. ↑ "From Big Man on Campus to the Big Apple".
  8. 1 2 "Tunezy the Social Record Label Debuts with Beta Test". Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2014-10-13.
  9. ↑ "Toronto Startup: Tunezy A CrowdFunded Record Label Of Sorts INTERVIEW - Serious Startups". 6 October 2012.
  10. ↑ "Cash from former boss helps launch music company". The Globe & Mail. May 23, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Tunezy's New Fan Wishlists Connect Musicians And Fans Through Tangible Experiences". February 25, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Intertainment Media Announces Investment in Independent Music Platform Tunezy, Inc". Bloomberg.
  13. ↑ "National Business & Technology Conference (NBTC)". Archived from the original on 2014-11-02. Retrieved 2014-10-20.
  14. ↑ "Tunezy Wins Billboard's FutureSound Innovators Showcase". Billboard. November 17, 2012.
  15. ↑ "SFX 2013 Annual Report".
  16. ↑ "Derrick Fung - Drop | LinkedIn". LinkedIn.
  17. ↑ "Co-Chair Committee Announced for CMW 2015". Archived from the original on 2014-07-12. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  18. ↑ "WITH $1 MILLION IN FUNDING, TORONTO-BASED DROP HOPES TO DOMINATE NORTH AMERICA'S LOYALTY MARKET". 2016-07-05.
  19. ↑ Danny, Crighton (30 January 2018). "NEA leads $21m round for Drop, a rewards app for millennials". Techcrunch.
  20. ↑ Bradford, Laurence. "10 Best Tech Apps To Help You Save, Invest, And Manage Your Finances". Forbes.
  21. ↑ Alini, Erica (2018-08-21). "Air Canada to buy Aeroplan: 8 things consumers should know". Global News Canada.
  22. ↑ "Forbes Top 30 Under 30 - Music". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014.
  23. ↑ "Profile: Derrick Fung, 2012 FuEL Award Winner". Profit Magazine.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.