David Pakman on Disruptive Innovation and Mental Models in a Changing World

David has been a Partner at Venrock since 2008 and focuses on early stage consumer and enterprise internet companies. Before Venrock, he spent 12 years as an internet entrepreneur. David was the CEO of eMusic, the world’s leading digital retailer of independent music, second only to iTunes in number of downloads sold. Prior to joining eMusic, David co-founded Myplay in 1999 in Redwood City, CA, which introduced the “digital music locker” and pioneered the locker category. In 2001, Myplay was sold to Bertelsmann’s ecommerce Group. Before Myplay, he was Vice President at N2K Entertainment, which created the first digital music download service. He also was the co-creator of Apple’s Music Group and worked at Apple for five years. David is a graduate and a former Overseer of University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science where he received a BSE in Computer Science Engineering. He serves on the Board of Part Of The Solution in The Bronx, loves tennis, and plays drums. In 2017, David was named one of the Top 100 Venture Capitalists by CB Insights.