20 VC 054: David Pakman @ Venrock on The Future Of The Music Industry

Quote of the Day: ‘A great entrepreneur has the ability to bend the world to their will’. David Pakman, 20VC

David Pakman is a Partner at Venrock, having spent the past 12 years as an internet entrepreneur. This includes David’s appointment as CEO of eMusic, the world’s leading digital retailer of independent music, second only to iTunes. Prior to joining eMusic, David co-founded Myplay in 1999, which he later sold, in 2001, to Bertelsmann’s ecommerce Group. Before Myplay, he was Vice President at N2K Entertainment, which created the first digital music download service. If that wasn’t enough David is also the co-creator of Apple Computer’s Music Group.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How David started his career as an entrepreneur and later made the move to VC?

• How David found the transition from entrepreneur and CEO to being a VC?

• What is the main value add that both Venrock and David provides to their investments?

• What makes a great entrepreneur for David?

• How long do VCs need to know entrepreneurs before making investments?

• What 3 tips would David give for best sourcing deals as a VC?

• What areas does David believe are soon to be disrupted? How does David predict the next big industries to be disrupted?

• What did David think of Jay Z’s launch of Tidal?

• Who will dominate in the music streaming sector in the coming years?

Items Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

• David’s Fave Book: Mindset by Carole Dweck

• David’s Favourite Blog: Ben Thompson’s: Stratechery

• Dollar Shave Club: Shave Time, Shave Money

• YouNow

• Tidal: High Fidelity Music Streaming

As always you can follow Harry, David, The Twenty Minute VC and Venrock on Twitter here!