E157: DA Wallach: Spotting Genius in Elon & Zuck's Early Days

D.A. Wallach’s journey is one of the most unconventional paths in venture capital. He went from fronting a rock band discovered by Kanye West and Pharrell, to investing in Spotify, SpaceX, and founding a biotech VC firm reshaping human medicine. In this episode, we dive into his evolution—from artist to investor—and what he’s learned from being in the room with Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Ron Burkle. D.A. shares why great investing is an act of taste, how he earned his first big break with Ron Burkle at Inevitable Ventures, and why he believes biotech is the most exciting place to invest over the next decade. We also discuss how aesthetic intuition applies to investing, how to think in second and third order effects, and what it really means to be contrarian when contrarianism has gone mainstream. Highlights: How D.A. invested in SpaceX after meeting Elon Musk socially in LA Lessons from working with Spotify, including his invented role as “artist-in-residence” What he saw in Facebook in the early days and how he used it to grow his band How Kanye West and Pharrell discovered his music and launched his career The backstory behind raising capital for Spotify and meeting Ron Burkle What made Ashton Kutcher and D.A. uniquely valuable investors at the time Why he pivoted from tech into life sciences and started a healthcare-focused VC firm The importance of developing aesthetic judgment as an investor How to think about portfolio construction in biotech vs. software Why investing is mostly about people—and what pattern recognition D.A. uses The subtle power of learning from failures and “almost mistakes” How to be truly contrarian in an environment where contrarianism is trendy -- Guest Bio: D.A. Wallach is a venture capital investor and former recording artist. Discovered by Pharrell Williams while at Harvard, he toured with artists like Lady Gaga and Blink-182 and released music through Interscope and Capitol Records. In 2011, he shifted to investing, backing companies like Spotify, SpaceX, Ripple, and Neuralink. Today, he focuses on biotech and healthcare as co-founder of Time BioVentures. Named to Forbes' “30 Under 30” and Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People,” D.A. also co-founded the Franca Fund for preventive genomics and appeared in the film La La Land. Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at david@weisburdcapital.com . We’d like to thank @Republic for sponsoring this episode! #VentureCapital #VC #Startups #OpenLP #AssetManagement -- Sponsor: Republic is the leading global investment platform making premier private market opportunities accessible to all investors. With over $3 billion deployed across its network of investment platforms, funds, and affiliated firms, Republic opens the door to new asset classes typically reserved for institutional investors such as—private equity, venture capital, and even sports teams and your favorite film producers. All securities, including the Hamilton Lane’s Private Infrastructure Fund, are offered through affiliate Republic Broker-Dealer, OpenDeal Broker LLC Member FINRA & SiPC. All securities come with specific risks not limited to a total loss of your investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Please review the risks specific to this investment on the HLPIF deal page hosted on http://republic.com/hlpif . -- Stay Connected: Twitter: David Weisburd: @dweisburd LinkedIn: David Weisburd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd/ D.A. Wallach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawallach/ Links Time BioVentures: https://www.timebioventures.com/ -- Questions or topics you want us to discuss on How I Invest? Email us at david@weisburdcapital.com . (0:00) Episode preview (2:00) Elon Musk's early views on AI and building SpaceX (4:18) Transition from music to investing and collaboration with Spotify (7:17) Leveraging Facebook for a band’s success and networking strategies (12:06) Mark Zuckerberg's early projects and the rise of Facebook (14:39) Contrarianism and its role in modern investing (19:22) How a music background influences investment decisions (22:32) Working with Ron Burkle and Inevitable Ventures (27:17) The journey of learning venture capitalism (30:10) Assessing higher-order effects in investments (31:52) The critical importance of investing in people (33:17) Diving into healthcare and biotech investing (36:46) Portfolio strategies in biotech versus traditional venture capital (39:38) How to compete with major biotech firms (44:40) The advantages of being surrounded by top performers (46:58) Learning from near-misses and investment failures (48:25) Closing remarks