David Bell

David is trailblazer in ecommerce and omnichannel strategy and referred to as the “Guru of the direct-to-consumer movement” by Inc. magazine. As an investor in iconic new economy companies, former Chaired Professor in academia, and award-winning researcher, David brings a unique and first-principles viewpoint to commerce and entrepreneurship.

As co-founder at Idea Farm Ventures, he and his fellow co-founder and team focus on “better-for-consumers, better-for-the-planet” products and services that bring delight to staid categories. In addition to providing capital, the team works hand-in-hand with founders on key work streams and critical business decisions. Early personal investments include Bonobos (acq. by Walmart for $310m), Diapers.com (acq. by Amazon for $545m), Jet.com (acq. by Walmart for $3.3b), Harry’s, Warby Parker, and Cotopaxi, among many others.

A sought after speaker, David has delivered keynote presentations on business innovation in the digital economy, go-to-market strategy and related topics, globally for AXA (France and Hong Kong), Alibaba and Haier (China), Nike, NY Life, Novartis, Ralph Lauren, and Shell (US), Al Futtaim and Mastercard (UAE), Google (Brazil, Mexico, US), NZTE (NZ) and the OECD (France), among others.

As an academic, David published peer-reviewed research in all premier academic marketing journals: Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Marketing Science, and Quantitative Marketing and Economics, as well as Journal of Econometrics. He won numerous teaching awards and several prestigious research awards from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), including the Frank M. Bass Outstanding Dissertation Award, John D.C. Little Best Paper Finalist Awards (three), Marketing Science Long Term Impact Finalist Awards (two), Best OM Paper in Management Science Finalist Awards (two), as well as First Place in the Applied Research Challenge from the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS).

David holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, an M.S. in Statistics from Stanford University, an M.A. (Honorary) from the University of Pennsylvania, an M. Com (1st Class Honors) and B. Com from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He resides in New York City and is a US Permanent Resident and New Zealand Citizen.