Chris Swain

About Chris Swain

I am a startup founder and USC professor. I have founded or co-founded three venture-backed companies and I have led 50+ products and business initiatives for companies that include Microsoft, Intel, Sony, Disney, Activision, IBM, and many others. I teach disruptive innovation, product validation, venture development, and team leadership. I developed IYA\'s Venture Pyramid scoring system and co-lead IYA\'s annual student ventures cycle along with Prof. Tina Sharkey.Prior to IYA, during my time in the game industry, I co-founded/directed the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab at USC and was a founding faculty member in the USC Games program. USC Games is the #1 ranked college game program by Princeton Review. While at USC I co-authored the book Game Design Workshop which has become the leading college game text. Prior to USC I was a founding member of the strategic design firm R/GA Interactive in NY. We grew R/GA Interactive from 4-300+ people and $0 ->$50mm in revenue during my time there. In 2025, The Webby Awards recognized R/GA as one of the thirty \"Most Iconic Companies in Internet History\".I have developed strategy and curricula for multiple colleges including the USC Iovine and Young Academy, USC School of Cinematic Arts, USC Annenberg School for Communications, Art Center College of Design and others.I speak regularly about startups and innovation in the press and at events around the world. Venues include MIT, Harvard, University of Cambridge, Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon, DARPA, University of Tokyo, Sorbonne, City U of Hong Kong, SIGGRAPH, Game Developer\'s Conference, many others. Publications I\'ve appeared in include NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, NPR, Forbes, Wired, others.Expertise: disruptive innovation, product validation, early stage startup strategy, financial modeling for new ventures, identifying winning market opportunities, startup ecosystem building, exponential thinking, futures thinking, curriculum design in the age of AI, venture formation strategy, crowdfunding, venture capital fund raising. Portfolio website:

Experience

1. Education Advisory Board

   Figma

   Mar 2022 — Present

   Work with the amazing people building Figma. Offer what help I can in regard to education initiatives.

Education

• University of Southern California

  MBA, Marshall School of Business

• Indiana University Bloomington

  BA

Skills

• Technical Recruiting
• Lean Startup
• Casual Games
• User Experience
• Content Strategy
• Fundraising
• Mobile Applications
• Interactive Media
• Story Structure
• Online Gaming
• New Media
• Start-Ups
• Creative Direction
• Online Communities
• Social Networking
• Multimedia
• Strategic Partnerships
• Team Building
• Leadership
• Technical Management
• Technology Management
• User Interface Design
• Entrepreneurship
• Video Games
• Television
• Strategic Consulting
• Ios Development
• Premiere
• Game Design
• Digital Marketing
• Animation
• Actionscript
• User-Centered Design
• User Interface
• Programming
• Digital Media
• Artificial Intelligence
• SEO
• Creative Development
• Human Computer Interaction