April 27, 2021
Meet Darren Fung, CTO and co-founder of Drop Technologies Inc!
What was your first co-op job? What was your favourite?
My first co-op term was the summer of 2009, during the recovery of the recession. I was luckily able to find a software development job at Sleep Country Canada for my first coop. My favorite coop was my last two, which I merged into one long coop term, founding a tech company with my brother called Tunezy. It also led to me taking some time off to focus more of my time on building the business.
How did you pick your career path?
I learned where my true passion was from my co-op terms where I worked with my brother to build a tech startup called Tunezy. Building a company and a web product from scratch was exhilarating, and it really set me on the path I'm on today, also building another tech startup with my brother called Drop.
How did you get involved on campus?
Whenever I wasn't on campus building things with my classmates, I'd find the time to build my network by meeting people at the Bomber. There was always something happening on campus and meeting people was a great way for me to get out of my comfort zone but also to build relationships that I still have today.
How do you stay involved as an alumni?
I try to give current students as much of the experience that inspired me by being very involved in the coop program. Drop hires many coops from UW and I love chatting and advising coop students on their career.
What advice would you give your first year self?
Try as many new things as you can. I thought I knew what my passion was early on in my career in school, but if I didn't try working at companies in different industries during coop, I wouldn't have known how exciting it'd be to build a company from the ground up.