Tyler Droll, originally from Duluth, Georgia, co-founded Yik Yak in 2013 with his fraternity brother, Brooks Buffington, shortly after graduating from Furman University. While pursuing his undergraduate degree, he took an app development class and began putting that knowledge into practice.

After first developing a social polling app, the duo decided to try their hand at a new product when they recognized a need for localized, open communications to give everyone on their campus a voice. During this process, Tyler decided to forego medical school in order to work on the app development full time. Today, Yik Yak is now popular on over 600 campuses and communities in the US and globally.