Tommiepreneurs For Social Change

Using video games as her medium, Minnesota entrepreneur Jules Porter is on a mission to transform the video game industry from within. As a gamer for most of her life, she recognized an opportunity to develop Black characters as the heroes, not the villains, in the storylines.

“It’s rare to find positive representation in video games,” she says about the simplistic depictions of Black characters as drug dealers or criminals. “The goal of Seraph 7 [Studios] is to put out positive images.”

By creating video games that center on positive BIPOC protagonists, Porter hopes to cultivate empathy and reduce racial bias by telling more diverse stories. She sees video games as a way to induce empathy because of how users are placed in the scene or story of the character.

Video games teach lessons about compassion without players even realizing it, she explains. By playing the story in someone else’s shoes, you see how your decisions impact the world around you.

Pitch Perfect at St. Thomas Entrepreneurship Competitions

Porter first pitched her idea for Seraph 7 Studios at the Fowler Business Concept Challenge, a student competition for social and for-profit ventures through the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. She received a $16,000 scholarship and critical acclaim for her innovative solution to combat negative racial stereotypes in video games.

The additional $10,000 in funding through the St. Thomas Business Plan competition helped to get her company off the ground. In gBETA St. Thomas, a free seven-week accelerator program for Tommie startups, her mentors showed this life-long gamer and coder how she could dream bigger beyond video game products.

For Porter, the mission of starting her business was clear, and St. Thomas was an essential step in the process. The entrepreneurial support and guidance helped Seraph 7 transition from an idea to an opportunity to foster empathy and build equity on a much larger scale.

Empowering Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Youth to Build Generational Wealth

Seraph 7 has established itself as one of the top social venture companies in the video game industry, with investors now valuing the company at $50 million. Porter is using this opportunity to invest in the next generation of diverse gamers right here in Minnesota.

She recently launched an applied work-study STEAM program to empower students of color, especially from low-income backgrounds, to become software developers and animators. The program allows local high school students to work on the company’s video games for a paycheck and school credit.

Porter, who faced race-based struggles when she was a high-schooler, wants to do more than build a video gaming company. She wants to help young adults build up their confidence and feel empowered to tell their unique stories. “I really want to see a world where all kids can see themselves as heroes.”