Derek Ting

CEO at TextNow

Derek is the Co-Founder and CEO of TextNow, the world's first truly flexible, affordable, and innovative mobile phone service that is available to everyone – for free. Supported by ads, TextNow is disrupting the wireless space as a strong alternative to the traditional carrier model. Named one of Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies by the Globe and Mail, TextNow’s 10 million monthly active send more than a billion text messages and make 125 million phone calls every month.

True to the company’s values as a resourceful and scrappy organization, TextNow posted record revenue in 2020, while only needing $1 million in outside funding, raised in a 2011 seed round led by Freestyle Capital and Menlo Ventures Talent Fund.

An entrepreneur at heart, TextNow wasn’t Derek’s first startup. While still in high school, he founded and sold two companies – web host WoolNet LLC and the file sharing network TorrentReactor. He was the recipient of the E&Y Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2012, an accolade bestowed upon leaders who take current ideas and evolve them into tomorrow’s greatest companies and solutions.

Before starting TextNow, Derek was employed as a Software Engineer at Qualcomm and was instrumental in the development of cutting-edge telecommunication technologies including the Femto cell and UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband).

Derek holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

TextNow's corporate headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario - Canada's tech innovation hub - with additional offices in San Francisco and Seattle.