I'm the guy who invented and developed TypeRacer. I got the idea all the way back in 2004, when I decided to make an effort to improve my typing skills. I was just getting out of college, and having studied Computer Science, I knew that learning to type faster would improve both my life and career. I started by using a shareware typing tutor which I downloaded and installed on my work computer, and after a couple of weeks, I learned all the letters on my Qwerty keyboard and which fingers to use. But I still wasn't typing very fast (around 30 WPM). So I started looking for typing games that I could use for practice. There were tons of games out there where you'd catch fish or shoot asteroids by typing random words next to those objects. I had fun playing those games at first, but then I realized that they weren't helping learn to type real text, with complete sentences and punctuation marks. I also wanted to play against real people, but that just wasn't possible, since there were no multiplayer typing games out there at the time. So I decided to make one myself!

I started writing the original code for TypeRacer back in 2006, working on it nights and weekends while being employed by a large software company. A year later, I left my job and started working on TypeRacer full time because I was eager to finish the project and make it available to the rest of the world. I didn't know how popular it was going to get, or if I'd make any money with it, but I believed that anyone who tried it would love typeracing!

I launched typeracer.com - the world's first multiplayer typing game - in the spring of 2008, and have been maintaining it and improving it ever since as my full-time job. In a way, my pursuit to speed up my typing in order to improve my life and career in turn actually became my life and my career. Although I still don't earn as much money as I did in my previous job as Software Engineer for an internet software company, I now have more freedom and I'm able to (and even have to) exercise my creativity on a regular basis. Instead of working for a boss at a big company, I now work for my myself and for you guys, continuing to develop and support this global typing community. Instead of a salary, I now get paid by advertisers to show ads on typeracer.com and by racers like you who've purchased premium memberships.

I hope you've been enjoying TypeRacer and I hope that typeracing has improved your skills and has given you many hours of quality recreation as it did for me. You can post your feedback on the forum, or email me by using the link at the bottom of the site.

So that's my story, and I'd love to read yours. A premium account lets you write your own "About Me" section in your racer profile, upload a profile picture, and much more!