Derek Ting began his entrepreneurial journey in high school, founding two companies: TorrentReactor, a torrent-sharing platform, and WoolNet, a web hosting service. He later earned a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo. In 2008, Derek launched TextNow to provide free texting, inspired by his own struggles to afford phone bills as a student. Despite early challenges Derek steadily grew TextNow into the first mobile provider offering free phone service with unlimited talk and text. Today, TextNow employs 200 people and generates $130 million in revenue, serving about 7 million users.

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