Caltech, UCLA and USC remain plugged into tomorrow with technology transfer programs that help inventors dream up, develop and take products to market.

USC: NINJA METRICS

Product: Katana Engine, a social network data analysis system

Chief Executive: Dmitri Williams (who co-founded the company with Jaideep Srivastava, chief engineer)

Year Founded: 2010

Locations: Los Angeles and Minneapolis

What Is It?

Dmitri Williams: Ninja Metric’s Katana Engine is a system that analyzes data from large social systems to show what is driving traffic, spending, quitting, etc. It also detects when a person is at risk of leaving. Lastly, it shows with new patented technology who is influential in the system, and puts a dollar value on that influence.

What was the idea that led to the creation of the company?

Our academic research team had been studying online gamers for many years with large-scale data. It wasn’t difficult to change the models from predicting academic goals to commercial ones.

What were the biggest challenges?

Understanding really large amounts of data from both a computer science and social science perspective was new territory. Blending those approaches is really powerful but difficult to master. Learning how to run a company isn’t in the training for most academics. It’s been exciting to think less about grading and committees, and more about cash flow, equity and customers.

Why was it born at a university?

The technology involved was born out of funded research projects administered by universities. That makes the universities part owners, and a safe harbor to develop the ideas.

What has been the benefit of spinning the company out of the university?

USC has been supportive of the work, allowing me and the team to spend time and energy on the IP at a phase when many others would have to get venture money. We get the advantage of having very smart people allowed to experiment, take risks and make mistakes without worrying about an investor looking over our shoulder.

What’s been the biggest change since spinning off?

It’s still early days, but there’s a big difference between deliverables for customers and setting up midterms!

How could it change society?

Our technology has the potential to help organizers, governments and companies understand people in social systems much more than they can now. Knowing who is influential can make advertising much more efficient. We can help companies move from advertising to men aged 35-44 and instead do something specific for John Smith because he influences Joe, Bob and Kevin.

What’s next?

We’re in the proof-of-concept stage with our first customers. Once we can show the system works and can demonstrate an ROI for customers, the next phase will be scaling the business to more customers and into more industry verticals. There is a lot of exciting potential here in fields ranging from mobile to content to social networks.