​ A ne​w dynamic display at 10 S. State Street features Blue Demon basketball and lends vibrance to the city streets. Clips of players driving to the basket and dunking flash next to profiles of the student-athletes. The innovative storefront advertising system was created by a DePaul alum and was commissioned by DePaul Athletics to promote ticket sales for upcoming men’s and women’s basketball games.

Visual Feeder, co-founded by alumna Yaxi Yang, provided the technology for the immersive display and connected with DePaul through an ad agency. DePaul Associate Athletics Director Jessica Dorsey is credited with sourcing and managing this innovative activation. The collaboration builds on a $100,000 investment the university made in the company in the fall, when Visual Feeder was the first to receive an investment from the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center’s Halperin Emerging Company fund​.

“The realization of our shared vision, where new technology is harnessed to create unique and memorable experiences, has been amazing to see come to fruition,” says Yang, who earned her bachelor’s degree in business from the Driehaus College of Business.

The Halperin Fund makes equity investments in startups founded by students, alumni and community members that show potential for growth and job creation. The goal is for the fund to be a source of diversified revenue for the university, helping to build financial sustainability for the long term.

“This is an example of the end-to-end interdisciplinary work happening at DePaul: leveraging the entrepreneurial know-how and connections of the Coleman Center with the innovation of an alumna to meet a market need, all while creating value for the company and the university,” says Taylor Stapleton, executive associate athletics director for DePaul. “This should be a model for the future.”

Founded in 2020, Visual Feeder builds immersive activations in vacant storefronts to advertise for a range of clients, including consumer brands, non-profit organizations, private institutions and museums. Their displays are active on Chicago’s iconic Magnificent Mile, in shopping centers through Chicagoland, as well as in New York City and San Francisco.

DePaul community members interested in applying to the Halperin Emerging Company Fund can complete an application online.