Derek Andersen is the founder and CEO of Startup Grind, a global community that is powered by Google for Entrepreneurs designed to educate, mentor, and connect entrepreneurs. Founded in 2010 from humble beginnings with only 9 people attending his first event, 4 years later Start up Grind has grown to more than 100 cities, in 42 countries around the world.

After founding Vaporware Labs in 2009, he incubated many products (most of which failed spectacularly) including Startup Grind and professional social network Commonred. In 2012 Commonred was sold to Income.com.

He is also Ex-Electronic Arts where he worked on games like Burnout, Mirror's Edge, The Sims, and Need For Speed. Having spent 8-years living outside the United States, he currently lives in Palo Alto California with his wife and three children.

Derek has been featured on Forbes, Tech Crunch, and The Wall St Journal.