On the TechTO stage ×2
Building High Potential Start-up Teams
Watch on YouTube ↗
5 Important Business Lessons
Watch on YouTube ↗First seen on the TechTO stage in 2017. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Derrick ↗
In their words
You want to hire the best engineers. At the early stages, they're engineers that can take critical feedback, that are vulnerable — where you can go to them and say, 'Hey, this feature is crap, let's fix it,' and they won't take offense to that.
If you're building a dog food product, you need to find people that will actually eat your dog food. If you're building an on-demand yoga pants company, you need to find people that'll wear your yoga pants. You need to find people that will actually use your product and will give you feedback.
Your first 10 decisions are the most important. These are often one-way doors — once you make these decisions you often can't go back. These are your co-founders, your product, your market, go to market, how are you gonna compete, home base, your team, your story. These are very important decisions. Don't rush them.
Quick answers
What is Derrick Fung known for?
Co-founding Drop, the Toronto app that let people earn points on everyday debit and credit card spending, and serving as its CEO. Drop entered receivership in December 2025. Before Drop he founded Tunezy, a music startup acquired by SFX Entertainment in 2013.
What did Derrick Fung do before Drop?
He was a trader at CIBC, which he left in 2011, and also worked at Merrill Lynch and BNP. He then co-founded Tunezy in the music industry, which sold to SFX Entertainment in 2013; he joined the buyer in New York as a vice-president.
How many times has Derrick Fung spoken at TechTO?
Twice: a 2017 talk on building high-potential startup teams, and a 2020 talk on five lessons from his first five years building Drop.
What happened to Drop?
The Ontario Superior Court appointed KSV Restructuring Inc. as receiver over Drop Technologies on December 11, 2025, on application by National Bank of Canada, after a buyer walked away from a going-concern sale the day before.