Today, Origin Investments is a boutique real estate firm with a track record of success investing in multi-family real estate in the Sun Belt.  

The firm’s story, however, began at DePaul.  

The story of Origin is about the entrepreneurial mindset: about how a commitment to innovation and creativity can lead to success. It’s a story about doing things differently, and the power of unconventional thinking.  

Above all, it's a story about the strength of the DePaul network: about how DePaul business alumni are making a difference in businesses across the country.  

At DePaul, the power of a real-world education

Today, at least four of the firm’s employees, including co-founder Michael Episcope, are DePaul alumni. Among them is Dave Welk.  

Welk met Episcope when both were students in DePaul’s MS in Real Estate program. It was 2008 when Welk started his advanced degree, and connections between the classroom and the real world were everywhere. Welk and Episcope met in a class on mortgage-backed securities. Other classes involved designing and pricing out an office complex, or hand-crafting risk models to present to a panel of real-world professionals.  

In one class, Welk recalls, Episcope took those real-world connections to the next level.  

Welk and Episcope joined forces to write a paper on strategies for buying up pools of distressed debt from banks – a very timely topic in 2008. Just a few weeks later, Episcope and his business partner, David Scherer, put these ideas into practice.  

“I don’t know too many people who literally took their business school papers and put their money behind it while they were still in school,” said Welk.  

Bringing the entrepreneurial spirit to real estate  

Eighteen years later, that moment stands out to Welk as an example of how the entrepreneurial spirit is baked into Origin’s approach.  

Episcope and Scherer founded Origin in 2007. In 2011, they hired Welk as one of the firm’s earliest employees.

Welk already had a successful career at Deutsche Bank. Leaving that career for a fledgling business carried risks. But Welk didn’t hesitate.  

"It was a chance to go to a startup environment. It was a chance to get in on the ground floor and help build something,” said Welk. “There aren’t too many of those opportunities in real estate.

“Fourteen years later and we’ve got $3.6 billion in assets under management, 62 employees, and ten funds.”  

Welk now serves as the firm’s Managing Director of Acquisitions. Numerous DePaul alumni have joined over the years. Michael O’Shea, the firm’s Head of Private Wealth, is a Blue Demon.  

So is Chris Neumann, Origin’s Senior Vice President of Investment Management. When Neumann joined the firm in 2017 as an associate, there were just 14 other employees.  

“It’s really exciting to think back about how much time has passed,” Neumann said.  “I’ve been promoted four times over the past eight years. I’ve certainly found my home here. And I’ve been able to experience a great amount of professional growth as the company itself has grown by leaps and bounds.”  

From Welk’s point of view, the firm’s success has had everything to do with sustaining a spirit of innovation.  

“At every turn, Dave [Scherer] and Michael [Episcope] pushed us to question everything: to do something that’s unique and different and innovative. That’s been at the core of Origin throughout, and it continues to be a core value. And it’s been really rewarding.”  

For Episcope, success boils down to focusing on quality over profit.  

“We aimed to build a different kind of company: direct-to-consumer, transparent, risk-focused and free of costly middlemen,” he said. “Profit wasn’t our primary concern; we prioritized creating value for customers, trusting that the money would follow.”

A national firm with Chicago roots  

Though Origin researches and invests in markets across the country, its headquarters remain right here in Chicago: just steps away from where Episcope, Welk, and countless other DePaul alumni got their start in the field.  

“Chicago is home to many great real estate companies, and I can’t think of a better place to get hands-on experience,” said Episcope. “I have no doubt my career would not have been as successful as it has been without the Chicago surroundings, the network I gained through DePaul and the valuable teachings as well.”  

Welk echoed Episcope’s sentiments.  

“One of the best elements of the DePaul program, from my perspective, is that you have people on the faculty who are true practitioners,” he said. “You’re getting leaders on the theoretical side of it. But there are also professors that have been there: who are still out in the field in Chicago.”