Portrait of Derek CowanScotland-born · building from Vietnam

Derek Cowan

Founder · Builder · Teacher

I taught 7,000+ English lessons online and I've been writing code since 2008. Now I build what I wished existed: Tuton, the platform that gives independent tutors their own classroom, plus the developer tools I reach for every day.

Connect on
7,000+
online lessons taught
2008
writing code since
30
employees at my first company
6
products live in production

About

I'vebeenbuildingthingsmywholelife:shipsandsubmarinesinScottishshipyards,acleaningcompanythatgrewtothirtypeople,homesinNepalaftertheearthquake,apizzarestaurantinVietnam.Iwrotemyfirstcodebackin2008,andalongthewayItaughtmorethanseventhousandEnglishlessonsonline,seeingeverysingledaywhatindependenttutorsareupagainst.SoIbuiltthefixmyself.Ibelievethebestproductscomefromdoingthework,notjustthinkingaboutit.

Now building

Tuton

The all-in-one platform for independent English tutors.

Video classroom, AI lesson generation, student CRM, scheduling, invoicing: everything a tutor needs to run an independent teaching business without stitching together six subscriptions. It exists because I spent years living the problem. Tuton is the tool I wished I had at lesson one, and I still teach on it every week.

600+
lessons taught on Tuton
100%
of earnings kept by tutors
tuton.io
The Tuton classroom: an infinite canvas with live video, lesson slides, and vocabulary cardsTeach: the classroom
A student profile in the Tuton student CRM showing level, goal, frequency, and lessons completedManage: student CRM
A public tutor profile on Tuton with lesson pricing, trial lesson, and available booking timesGrow: profile & bookings
The classroom is one piece. Tuton runs the whole tutoring business: lessons, students, bookings, and the public profile that wins new students.Visit tuton.io
Also live

The other products I've shipped

Each of these is in production with real users. Designed, built, deployed, and operated end to end.

The Linkava homepage

Linkava

One scan to connect

A QR code that shares your whole profile, and a personal CRM that saves everyone you scan, tagged to the event where you met. Live on the web, with the iPhone app heading to the App Store next.

2026·Next.jsConvexApp Store soon
The WordViva homepage

WordViva

Every word you meet, yours for life

Turns the words you stumble across into vocabulary you actually keep. AI builds the flashcard in seconds, and spaced repetition makes it stick. iPhone app on the way.

2025·Next.jsAISpaced Repetition
The GramViva grammar reference homepage

GramViva

English grammar, taught properly

A free grammar reference built around real classroom teaching: 218 rules, 1,569 practice questions, and a quiz on every page.

2025·Next.jsELTFree forever
The Pizza Lagi online ordering homepage

Pizza Lagi

A real business, and the app that runs it

A pizza delivery business in Vietnam, running since 2022, plus the bilingual ordering platform I built to power it. Shipping isn't just for software.

2022–now·Next.jsConvexReal-world ops

Plus the plumbing underneath: a dictionary API, a realtime collaboration server, and self-hosted video infrastructure across two regions, all built and run solo.

Developer tools

Small tools I built for my own workflow

Sharp, single-purpose things I made because I needed them and nothing off the shelf fit. One is open source, the other two are still being shaped.

Talklate

Translated captions, live on screen

A macOS overlay that captions people in real time and translates as they speak, floating above any app including fullscreen presentations. It listens to the microphone and the system audio together, so both sides of a call get captioned, then records the session and writes the summary afterwards.

In developmentmacOS
TauriRustRealtime ASR

Pairterm

Share a real terminal with a link

Pair on a live terminal, an agent session, and the codebase behind it with anyone, on any device, from a single link. It runs on tmux, so the session survives a dropped connection and keeps working when everyone closes the tab.

Open sourceSelf-hosted
Nodetmuxxterm.js

Mynah

Hold a key, talk, and the text appears

A macOS menu bar dictation app, named after the bird that repeats what it hears. Press a global hotkey, speak, and the transcription lands directly in whatever app you were already using. Custom vocabulary teaches it the names it always gets wrong, and it pauses whatever you are playing while you talk.

In developmentmacOS
SwiftWhisperGroq

These are side projects rather than a product line. If one of them solves a problem you have, get in touch and I'll tell you where it's up to.

The story

An unconventional route here

No CS degree, no accelerator. Just a lifetime of making things and finishing them.

  1. 1999

    Fabricator: ships & submarines

    First job out of school, building ships and submarines in Scotland's shipyards. Real deadlines, real steel.

  2. 2008

    Founded my first company

    Started a cleaning business from nothing and grew it to over 30 employees.

  3. 2015

    Nepal earthquake relief

    Raised funds and coordinated international volunteers to rebuild eight homes in a Nepali village.

  4. 2020

    Went online: 7,000+ lessons

    Built an independent online tutoring practice, taught thousands of lessons to students around the world, and met the problem I'd end up solving.

  5. 2024

    Founded Tuton

    Turned 7,000 lessons of firsthand frustration, and sixteen years of writing code, into the platform I wished I'd had at lesson one.

  6. Now

    All-in on Tuton

    Building, teaching, and operating everything myself, from the product to the infrastructure it runs on.

Read the full story

Let's talk.

Investor, fellow builder, tutor, or just curious. Email is the fastest way to reach me, and I answer everything myself.