David Bell

David R. Bell is co-founder and President of Idea Farm Ventures (IFV), a New York-based consumer and retail investment company. Referred to as the "guru of the DTC movement" by Inc. Magazine and the "man who kickstarted the direct brand economy" by IAB, David has been an early investor in some of the most recognised consumer brands of the past decade, including Bonobos (acquired by Walmart for $310M), Diapers.com (acquired by Amazon for $545M), and Jet.com (acquired by Walmart for $3.3B). IFV portfolio companies Harry's and Warby Parker have both reached billion-dollar valuations, and in July 2025, Touchland was acquired by Church & Dwight for $880M. Before co-founding IFV, David spent 20 years at Wharton as a chaired professor, award-winning teacher, and the originator of the school's courses on digital marketing and e-commerce. He has published peer-reviewed research across all the major marketing journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, and Management Science, as well as practitioner publications including MIT Sloan Management Review and California Management Review. He has also taught at INSEAD, MIT Sloan, and UCLA. David holds a PhD (Business) and MS (Statistics) from Stanford, a BCom and MCom (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland, and an MA from the University of Pennsylvania. As a keynote speaker, David has worked with clients including Alibaba, Google, Haier, Mastercard, Microsoft, Nike, and Ralph Lauren. Recent engagements include keynotes at the APEC Summit in Korea (October 2025) and the CUES Executive Symposium in Maui (February 2026). His book Location Is (Still) Everything is a practical guide to winning in the digital economy; his forthcoming title, Founders Gold, draws on his investments in ten standout consumer and retail companies to set out principles for aspiring founders. David is also a Senior Advisor at Berkeley Research Group, a leading commercial litigation consulting firm. He has testified in court, at arbitration, and been deposed more than ten times in trademark, patent infringement, class action, and consumer protection cases, representing clients including Apple, Costco, Intel, LinkedIn, SAP, and Verizon.