Chris Swain is a USC professor and startup founder. He has co-founded three venture-backed companies and led 50+ products and business initiatives for companies that include Disney, Intel, Sony, IBM, RAND Corporation, NASDAQ, Activision, and many others. He teaches disruptive innovation, product validation, and venture development at the USC Iovine and Young Academy (IYA). He developed the school's IYA Venture Pyramid scoring system and is a leader of the school's student ventures program. In addition, he is a leader of IYA's Innovation Quest, Business of Innovation curriculum pathway, and joint Bachelor of Science degree (BUIN) with the USC Marshall School of Business. Chris serves on Figma's Education Advisory Board.

Prior to IYA, Swain co-founded/directed the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab at USC and was a founding faculty member in the USC Games program. Through his lab, Swain researched methodologies for user engagement using playable systems and the principles of intrinsic motivation. His lab benefactors included National Science Foundation, NIH, Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, U.S. State Dept, and others.  

Early in his career, Chris was a founding member of R/GA Interactive. He helped the company grow from 4-300+ people and $0 - >$50mm in revenue during his time there. Chris led hundreds of interactive projects as a team lead and designer. 

Swain speaks about startups and innovation in the press and at events around the world. Past venues include MIT, Harvard, University of Cambridge, Columbia University, DARPA, University of Tokyo, Sorbonne, City U of Hong Kong, SIGGRAPH, Game Developer's Conference, others. He has appeared in the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, NPR, Forbes, Wired, and many other publications.

Expertise: disruptive innovation, product validation, early stage startup strategy, financial modeling for new ventures, startup ecosystem building, exponential thinking, futures thinking, curriculum design in the age of AI, early stage strategy, product management, crowdfunding, venture capital fund raising.

Chris can be reached at cswain@usc.edu