Meet the Founder

9II9 (aka “nine”) is a startup studio and product consultancy led by American entrepreneur and global product management expert Derrick Fountain.

Derrick is a global product and design leader with extensive international experience across multiple continents and industries. Over the past decade, he has led and scaled product and innovation teams in Qatar, Turkey, and Iraq. In 2021, he returned to Minnesota to work as a consultant, leveraging his unique blend of expertise in product management, design, marketing, and engineering to support new startup ventures.

Outside of technology, Derrick maintains a small leather goods workshop in Istanbul, where he designs artisanal leather bags and accessories for modern professionals.

  • "Derrick has a lot of insight to offer and grasped how media could work effectively in voice much earlier than most others."

    — Bret Kinsella, Editor, Voicebot.ai

  • “The attendees really loved the workshop, and are eager to put into practice what they've learned from you.”

    — Valer Kot, MDIF, Czech Republic

  • "It was a real pleasure to be at your workshop and to learn something new. It definitely helps me to understand the whole product we create."

    — Andy Samofalov, Liga.net, Ukraine

  • "I had the opportunity to listen to your presentations at Agora on Monday and Tuesday. They were impressive - huge amount of knowledge and practice put in very structured way."

    — Tomasz Bienias, Agora, Poland

  • "I've worked for Derrick on a couple of projects on enabling citizen journalism platforms in Kenya and Ghana. He is really visionary on how to expand the way news channels can get new sources of information from the field."

    — Stephane Boyera, World Wide Web Foundation

Accolades and Media Coverage