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. Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting 215,000 founders in over 185 cities. We nurture startup ecosystems in 70 countries through events, media, and partnerships with organizations like Google for Entrepreneurs. The cornerstone of our global community are monthly events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Founded in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind has now hosted 2,000 fireside chats since its founding in 2010. To date, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs find mentorship, connect to partners and hires, pursue funding, and reach new users.