Katzenberg helped revive Disney’s animation division as an executive there in the 1980s and ’90s with hits such as “The Little Mermaid.” After teaming up with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to found Dreamworks SKG, he headed the new studio’s animation division, producing hits including “Chicken Run.”
Now, though, he thinks he’s found a company that can make the process a lot more scientific — San Francisco-based Alembic. The startup has designed an artificial-intelligence-powered system that analyzes data from a wide range of sources — social media, radio, TV and digital marketing — to predict the effectiveness and return on investment of particular marketing messages.
The technology Puig and his team have developed is akin to that used during the COVID-19 pandemic to determine infection rates from disparate public data sources, he said. 49ers-Chiefs by the numbers: Who has the Super Bowl edge? A rematch of the same game four years ago, San Francisco seeks revenge in a Sin City showdown
He also declined to say how much Alembic recorded in sales last year, but he said its revenue was up three times from the year before. While a collection of AI startups in San Francisco more recently have been raising copious amounts of funding and growing rapidly, other companies have continued to slash jobs in The City.