David Padula

David Padula

I'm an entrepreneur with over 15 years of e-commerce, sales, supply chain and procurement experience in industries ranging from apparel to automotive to telecom and entertainment.

Los Angeles, California, United States
Member since April 15, 2013
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Founder & CEO of fans.lu E-commerce & Supply Chain expert who has worked at Paramount, Activision and Harley Davidson. Ran with the bulls in Pamplona, 9 times. Quote_down
  • About
Education
2000 Western Michigan University , BA , Supply Chain Management with a minor in mechanical engineering
2000 Växjö University , BS , Supply Chain Management
I am a(n):

Entrepreneur

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I want to change the world.

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

The most frustrating thing is when people you meet do not have a grasp on your vision or see the potential immediately. The most rewarding thing is watching your ideas and vision become reality and having a positive impact on other peoples lives.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

giving up early. Close #2 is not having a clear vision on the problem they are solving, before starting.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

1. size the market and scalability before starting
2. ensure my background and skill set will give me a competitive advantage in the market and in the decisions I make for the company
3. find people for my team with a better background and skill set than me on the things I'm not an expert in, to help make decisions in those areas.

Full bio

I'm an entrepreneur with over 15 years of e-commerce, sales, supply chain and procurement experience in industries ranging from apparel to automotive to telecom and entertainment. I've also personally developed many innovative packaging concepts such as the eco-box DVD case http://www.viva-eco-box.com.

Love to travel (been to over 20 countries), lived and worked abroad for a few years and have run with the bulls in Pamplona Spain 9 times.

CAREER MILESTONES

  • Invented, proto-typed with a supplier and production approved the “Eco-Box” DVD Case that is now the global industry DVD case standard. The Eco-Box reduces the amount of plastic used in the case by 26%. Over one billion of these cases have now been used. http://www.viva-eco-box.com 
  • Initiated and drove corrugate display redesigns across Paramount Home Entertainment to eliminate 48% of the structural corrugate in the Wal-Mart ½ Cube DVD Display. This reduction translated to 4.4 million pounds of corrugate saved in 2007-2008 (46K Trees) and over $8 million in annual cost savings. Further sustainability initiatives / waste elimination in regards to packaging, resulted in an additional $8 million in annual cost savings.
  • While working closely with Paramount’s internal sales group, was able to convince Wal-Mart to change their overall Entertainment Industry corrugate standards, to match our studio’s more efficiently designed retail display.
  • Digital Entertainment Group – Pioneering Sustainable Packaging award winner Viacom “Share the Vision” award winner
  • Ericson Telecom persuasion course and negotiation course graduate