The Optimist Circuit

Building Health & Wealth Equity with Sydney Thomas of Symphonic Capital

• Ellen • Season 1 • Episode 3

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🎧 Building Health & Wealth Equity with Sydney Thomas of Symphonic Capital

What does it take to close the gaps in health and wealth access—and build a future where equity isn't just a buzzword, but a business model?

In this episode of The Optimist Circuit, we sit down with Sydney Thomas, founder of Symphonic Capital, a trailblazing venture firm backing health tech and fintech companies working to dismantle systemic barriers. With a background shaped by lived experience and a sharp eye for resourceful founders, Sydney is rewriting the rules of early-stage investing—one values-driven startup at a time.

đź’ˇ In this conversation, you'll learn:

  • Why resourcefulness is the #1 trait she looks for in founders ("making a dollar out of ten cents")
  • How companies like Flourish Care help moms access doula services through their insurance—solving not just care gaps, but information gaps
  • Why climate resiliency is the next frontier for both health and wealth equity
  • Her measured take on AI as a tool—not a replacement—for human-centered decision-making
  • How Sydney stays grounded and optimistic through community, storytelling, and listening to elders for historical context

🎙️ Whether you're a founder, investor, or future-builder, this episode will leave you feeling energized, thoughtful, and ready to invest your time and values into something greater.

Sydney is the Founder and General Partner of Symphonic Capital, an early-stage VC firm investing in the next generation of institutions serving overlooked and underserved communities. She has focused on this thesis for the past decade and is now on a mission to elevate the perspectives of founders, investors and LPs who have a diverse set of lived experiences and are dedicated to solving problems that impact the majority of people. She participates in several extracurricular activities to increase diversity in tech and level the playing field more broadly. 

Sydney is a proven fund builder and investor. She joined one of Silicon Valley’s first Pre-Seed funds and scaled it from a Solo Operating GP with 10 investments to a 3-person team with 400+ investments and $200M+ in AUM.

👉 Follow Sydney on LinkedIn and explore her work at symphoniccapital.com.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome everyone. I'm Francesca and I'm Ellen Spooner, and we are co-hosts of the Optimist Circuit, a podcast about building the circuit connecting AI, tech, nature and people to spark optimism and power solutions for society. We are very excited today to be speaking with Sydney Thomas, founder of Symphonic Capital, a VC firm dedicated to health tech and fintech with a view to making a more equitable future for all. Prior to founding Symphonic Capital, a VC firm dedicated to health tech and fintech, with a view to making a more equitable future for all, Prior to founding Symphonic Capital, Sydney was employee number one at Precursor VC and she brings with her a background in the public sector in education. She has been building community every step of the way, both as founder of Black Women in BC and also through her famous coffee chats. With that, I would like to welcome you onto the podcast, Sydney, Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything that you would add to the intro? Anything else that we need to know about Sydney?

Speaker 2:

Oh, interesting, such a great question, I would say. I mean, I think you guys covered it very well. I loved the community builder along the way. I feel like, if anything, that's one of my favorite titles and really excited to be building community in San Diego, which is my hometown, and to be investing here locally and seeing what has changed since I've been gone, which has been a long time event.

Speaker 3:

you were talking about how you were excited to come back to San Diego and I'm super excited to talk to you because when you gave that speech it was very inspiring for me just to hear your journey and your persistence. So we're very excited to have you on and, if you wouldn't mind, maybe telling us a little bit more about Symphonic Capital and what makes it unique and different. Happy to.

Speaker 2:

So I am. The way I describe Symphonic Capital is it's a culmination of my life's work. I've been doing this work in very different places throughout my career and I am most proud of how it ties really to my own family story. And so when we talk about investing in companies that are closing access gaps around health and wealth, these are gaps that I have witnessed very explicitly and just being a Black girl in America, and so a big part of what we're looking to do is address some of the issues that I've seen over my life in different places. When we think about closing the wealth gap and focusing on fintech companies that are doing that work. Depending on the audience, I will share how some of the data around the racial wealth gap and also dig into some of my background at Duke, where I was studying under a professor who had been doing a lot of this work.

Speaker 2:

And then, on the healthcare side, I talk a lot about the fact that you know I'm the daughter of a retired nephrologist, and so I spent also a lot of my childhood in and around health care, and as I've grown, just seeing how so much of it is is really just discombobulated.

Speaker 2:

It feels like it's like this Frankenstein that doesn't was not, you know, actually built with any one purpose in mind, and so there's so many different parts of it that need to be stitched back up and for it to actually operate effectively, and so that's a lot of what we focus on on the health care side, too, is like what are some of the technologies that can make health care work better for folks who have, who are generally underserved, so folks who might be afraid to go to the doctor or can't take time off to go to the doctor, or, you know, have had insurance really great insurance one year, and now are on Medicaid. I think there's just such an interesting, complex group of folks that the hospital system just hasn't been set up well to serve, and so that's exactly the target audience for us.

Speaker 1:

Can you share? I mean, this might be difficult because it'd be picking between your darlings, but do you want to spotlight any of the portfolio companies and tie that back to sort of the mission that you've just described?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean cause.

Speaker 2:

The one that comes to mind is a company that we've been working with for over a year now called Flourish Care, and what she's doing is helping moms access doula care.

Speaker 2:

And you know, a big reason why moms don't expecting mothers don't take advantage of doula care is because they don't know it's covered by insurance. I think that's one of the things about insurance it's not really great at telling you what services it covers and doesn't cover until you get the bill, and so what she does is help expecting moms understand. Okay, not only does your insurance cover this. Here are the doulas that make sense for you, given your preferences, or here are the doulas that make sense for you, given what you are, given what insurance company you have, whether that is a government run plan like a Medicaid, or whether that is an Aetna a government run plan like a Medicaid or whether that is an Aetna. And so I'm really excited about how she's just like back to the stitching up, stitching up some of those inconsistencies or the dropping of the information gaps that leads to, you know, folks not getting the level of care that they deserve or, honestly, that they're even paying for.

Speaker 3:

Totally, and with that example, when you're looking into these companies and deciding to invest in them, do you also, I'm guessing, look at their the tech side of, like how she's actually building this tool and what that entails, and could you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 2:

entails, and could you talk a little bit about that? So I am so excited to be partnered with Shruti Shah at Symphonic. She is just keeps me honest. She keeps our diligence process, I think, really tight and intentional and detailed, and so we do do a lot of the digging into this. How is the underlying tech operating?

Speaker 2:

That being said, you know we're not. Usually it doesn't need to be rocket science when we're investing in the company, like we're not expecting you to have built out some like open AI or deep seek, like super cool infra technology. Really, what we're looking for is how are you being really intentional about the resources that you have to date? Oftentimes, we're investing in companies that are bootstrapped before we invest in, have built something really interesting but probably didn't have millions of dollars to pull it together. So we're trying to understand both how has the company and founder been really thoughtful about launching this company and how is the tech able to scale? And if it's not able to scale and they'll need to, like you know, just break it apart and start over does that founder have the connections or relationships that they need in order to bring in that, you know, chief product officer or CTO to help them get to V2.?

Speaker 1:

I love that and I know that in a previous conversation that we had. One of the points that you touched on is looking for companies that Looking for companies that offer what is needed in the market and are not necessarily trying to become the next unicorn. One thing that sets Symphonic apart is that you have to find for yourselves what just right is, what enough is. Am I characterizing that correctly? Yeah, yeah, characterizing that correctly. Could you share a bit more about that thinking and sort of, if it isn't the most sophisticated tech that you're looking for, what are the standout qualities that you do look for in your portfolio companies?

Speaker 2:

So one of the things that we're really looking to unlock within the founders is resourcefulness. I think that that is a really huge under discussed talent, and I would say it's a talent that I think the best founders have, which is when you are, you know how do you make. I'd say in the colloquial thing, how do you make a dollar out of 10 cents? And the founders who can do that are just rock stars, and oftentimes those founders who are that are largely underrepresented because they're used to living. They're used to doing that in maybe their personal life or their family members.

Speaker 2:

So this isn't actually the resourcefulness is a learned trait from a young age, and I feel like those are the founders who I'm especially excited about, because they just they get the nature of the game. It's not actually to just keep amassing millions of dollars with the hope of one day launching something that might be interesting. It's like how do I prove every step of the way that what I'm building has a really interesting consumer base and those consumers are willing to pay for this thing? And I can if I have one of those consumers. That gives me a month, 10 consumers, which then gives me, puts me on a pathway to unlock a 100 of those consumers. And so what are some of my really true, honest growth expectations for this company and how do I think about that from day one?

Speaker 1:

How does that tie into, then? Another thing that we've discussed previously is you operate with a bias for urgency, which I love. One thing you've said before is if your goal can be achieved in this lifetime, you're not reaching high enough. So how do you balance, or what signals to you that the person that you're speaking with is both someone who has that pragmatism to be resourceful, but, at the same time, that they are reaching high enough?

Speaker 2:

poppy syndrome, where a lot of us are really, you know, trained, unfortunately, to not stand out in that way and reach for the highest thing, because other folks will cut us down if we do. And so I think there is this really it doesn't. So, essentially, what I'm saying is it doesn't have to be perfect. If somebody comes to me and says I want to build a $250 million company, then I'm like, okay, I could work with that, we can push to 500 million, and like this would be an amazing outcome for us at Symphonic. If someone's coming to me and saying like you know what, I know, I could build a $10 million company, that is too small.

Speaker 2:

And so those are folks who I can't, um, you know, in good faith, invest in, but who folks who I really enjoy coaching and supporting more um at POC basis, because I think some of that is just like a process of unlearning and if we're all at different stages, uh, on that journey, um, I've definitely made this mistake in the past where I'm like it's okay, I can fix it. I know that you, you need to unlearn this stuff. I will help you by part of helping you. I will invest, we will make it work. I'll meet with you every week and that has that ended up in complete flames. It was a terrible idea. So I've had to have like a really much. I've had to build much better and stronger boundaries between both, like what I know to be true because of this person, because of the lived experience that I think they might've had and what I can, you know, really responsibly invest in from a returns perspective for the fund.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, unlearning is, I think, one of the skills that, as well, we never get taught, but we can't progress without it, so that resonates very much with me. Is there anything else in that vein that you think, going back, if you could do it differently, you would.

Speaker 2:

It's so hard because I was also on the unlearning journey and so I think part of my unlearning as oldest daughter, you know, I can fix it all and I think at that moment in time I was like, oh, it's okay, I got this, I got this, I get this. And I think now, knowing that like I didn't have it, like I actually did not, and that's okay, has been my own process. So I think anything I wish I would have if I go back, I wish I would have gotten to that um decision point and clarity earlier of just like okay, sydney, this is too much, you're out of your depths. Let's kind of rein it in and focus on the things that you actually could um control or have some meaningful impact on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so taking that beat Exactly. If you are okay with it, I might pivot a bit and talk about the mission behind Symphonic and how social impact features so clearly and strongly through it. One thing that interests me and that is of great interest to our podcast audience is, in addition to social impact, how sustainability intersects with the societal change that you are driving and that other initiatives are driving. So I wanted to ask how, if at all, you're thinking about sustainability considerations as part of the work that you're doing at Symphonic.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's such a great question and one that I think is on so many of our minds, especially this year after we've just been hit with, you know, barrage after barrage of climate change-related disasters, and so one of the things that we think about a lot at Symphonic is climate resiliency, and so, you know, I think when we first talked, I was talking about Eaton and Altadena in LA and how you know, that community has been completely devastated by the most recent fires, and it was actually a one of the earliest communities in LA where black people were able to purchase their own homes, and so, with the lack of those homes, there is this destruction of wealth that these black families are now confronting.

Speaker 2:

And I think those inextricably linked parts of you know health of wealth access the more that climate impacts our property, the more it's going to impact wealth access. The more that climate impacts our ability to eat healthy foods, the more that it impacts our health access. It is all so inextricably linked that it's really important to acknowledge that inter action instead of trying to divorce one from each other, and so we're really excited about adding on climate resiliency into the fund as a clear focus, so that we are really intentional about some of those intersections.

Speaker 1:

It sounds like you're interested in opportunities and founders who are looking at climate resiliency. Is sustainability also something that you're talking to your existing portfolio companies about and pushing them on how to include that in the work that they do?

Speaker 2:

Definitely, and I think that you know, the companies that we've invested in to date are pretty tech-focused and so they're not actually producing much on the side of, like you know, plastics into the world, because they're not a lot of like sustainability byproduct to what she's producing, which is why we really wanted to, as we think about this head on, focus on the climate resiliency piece, to be just really thoughtful about actually making a dent in this work that we weren't previously really having the opportunity to do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, I suppose, from a footprint standpoint. If the companies are primarily technology focused, then potentially energy considerations might be the closest to what they're working with right now.

Speaker 2:

Definitely yeah.

Speaker 1:

Let's actually dig into the technology a little more. I know we touched on it briefly previously, but AI is also something that does have the opportunity to both supercharge the work that I'm sure your portfolio companies and everyone is doing. It does have an associated environmental footprint impact, but we want to focus on the opportunity here, and so we wanted to ask you about how you are collaborating with and supporting your portfolio companies on the AI journey, and or if there's anything along those lines that you were looking to apply even to how Symphonic is run.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that. So the way that we think about AI is that it will eventually become like the Internet, where everyone's using it in some way, shape or form. It is really a technology enabler to help folks just do their best work more quickly. We use it internally very often. We use chat GPT often when we're drafting materials. We use I call Canva even in AI company when we think about putting together our pitch stats, all of the integrations that they've created.

Speaker 2:

Airtable is a really hefty product for us internally to make sure that we are getting back to founders in a timely manner and really intentionally. And I'd say we're also starting to dig into things like GC AI. There's a new startup called General Counsel AI, where it'll help you put together, draft little templates that you can use that decrease the cost of operating, and so, for us, ai allows you to do more with less, which I think is a really important part of any startup success, so we're really excited about it. Then we're investing in companies. We're looking for companies to be doing the same thing, and so if you're a portfolio company and you've never heard of DeepSeek, that's a red flag because you should be actually, as you're building your company, be thinking really critically about how are you integrating new technologies to help you scale as a founder?

Speaker 2:

And so that's a big part of how we're thinking about AI is how is AI, how are companies leveraging AI to do better work? And we're not doing as much. Ai is the product investing, where the company is just building out the infrastructure tool, like a deep seek, or building out an infrastructure tool like an open AI, because, um well, we didn't do it because it seemed like it was going to take a lot of money to launch one of those companies, because OpenAI has taken hundreds of millions of dollars to launch. But then we saw DeepSeek take no outside capital and launch of rethinking our own thesis on that in that, should we actually be looking at companies that are AI as the product companies, because they might be able to launch and scale off of two to $3 million, which is amazing? So the technology is moving really quickly. We are, you know, forced to try and keep up and we're doing our best.

Speaker 1:

It's. The landscape is changing constantly. Even as we're speaking about it, I feel like it's already evolving. With that being the case, though, and especially with you kind of rethinking your thesis on that, are there any guardrails that you feel are particularly prudent at this point in time, whether for yourself as Symphonic, and how you consider these AI opportunities going forward, or that you again encourage among your founders and your portfolio companies, in terms of, yes, absolutely be on the cutting edge of what AI is providing and what AI is offering, but also watch for these red flags.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So internally, we, you know, to launch a fund you, I also consider ourselves a small business, so we need a number of different operational tools available to us to launch our company, and one of those is we need a fund administration service which is basically like a back office group of folks who are doing all of your accounting, invoicing, all of that stuff. Ai is. One of their main promises is that they can automate some of that work and replace people with that work work. I am very cynical about how quickly they could do that with the right level of accuracy that we need in order to ensure our businesses maintains its level of credibility and excellence. I think that what we're seeing is a lot of like and we see this with chat, gpt they just lie when they don't have the right answer. Like that's is not okay. We can't actually operate from that place, and so something we're thinking about is how do we leverage AI tools around the edges while still being mostly a person?

Speaker 2:

First company, um, and I asked that question of founders that I'm talking to as well.

Speaker 2:

I went to a pitch competition a few weeks ago and I listened to a founder talk about how um it was really cool they had were able to identify, like all these neurodivergent issues with newborns who were in the NICU by using a video, because they had downloaded and reviewed 3,000 some odd hours of video of what types of behaviors a baby does.

Speaker 2:

That demonstrates that they have this neurodivergent issue. And I asked him okay, that's great, I'm glad you guys are using that, but is there like a stopgap, who's a human on the back end where, in case you're wrong, you know there's somebody else who can just like confirm, because this feels very high stakes and he didn't really have a great answer, and so I think that's where that's the place where I'm a little bit more concerned is, you know, I don't think we're all the way at the edge where we can fully replace humans, but we can use technology to augment humans, and so how are we building out these processes that allow us to work together more effectively and take some of the really redundant parts of work off of a human's plate and put that into a machine's plate? But we need to work together, and so I think that's kind of like the messy middle that I'm still not always seeing reflected in the pitches that I get.

Speaker 1:

So messy, so messy and and in fact I mean one of my personal guardrails around this as well is we need to at least get good enough with the AI where we can apply it to itself to deconstruct how it got to the end point. Because the fact that we still can't yeah, there's, there's still no trail of how it got from, you know uh data point to recommendation or prompt to uh response, um, so can it solve that and give us an audit trail for that? Yeah, let's talk as well about other emerging technologies. It could be hard to even sort of remember those right now because I feel like, at least for me personally, ai is crowding so much of my attention. But are there other emerging technologies that you are particularly excited about that you think will change the game for your field for venture capital?

Speaker 2:

It's such a good question and I think what's interesting now that I'm reflecting on it is that so many of the companies that I've seen and invested in to date are using technology to help a job that enables it to access and serve a different consumer in a better way, if that makes sense, and so it's like it's not that the technology is actually like the main game. It's almost like it's a tool, but it's not always like the end point, and that's very different from like a venture capital firm who is much more focused on like software infrastructure or deep tech is another way to say this or like, even on the climate side, like some really interesting creation, like machinery that helps you get access to silver in a more sustainable way. There's so much cool stuff happening in tech, but that's actually not really our lane as much. Our lane is more around. How are we using like, for example, another company that we invested in is a company called Scout that is helping mostly athletes access financial information around their new contracts, given the recent regulations around NIL, that enables college athletes to actually get paid.

Speaker 2:

And you know the tech actually isn't rocket science.

Speaker 2:

It's not like they're helping these athletes do something so far removed of something that they've ever done before. It's more that the founder himself is incredibly insightful on what actually these athletes need and has created a product to help those athletes get that information. That, more importantly, helped find those athletes who need that information, and so he's doing a lot of work on sales, helping them get access to this scalable, detailed, you know, group of information through this app and then creating this system on the back end to help build accountability so that those athletes actually continue to grow their wealth. And so it's actually like all of it together it's less around having kind of this like secret genie product and more around how is he both being? How does he know his customer better than anyone else so that he knows what he needs to build and can get in front of those folks who he needs to sell to, so that he's actually able to build and can get in front of those folks who he needs to sell to, so that he's actually able to build a really large business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this is. I'm sensing a thread here of there being a lot of excitement around finding and addressing those imperfect information gaps. Would you say that's something Sydney gets excited about? Okay, yeah, would you say that's something Sydney gets excited about? Yeah, on that note, then, where that perhaps being one example, but where do you find inspiration and what is something that is keeping you optimistic about the future?

Speaker 2:

I get to have the best conversations, like. My job is literally just a series of great conversations with people who are building really cool stuff, and so it's really hard not to be excited because all of the people who I'm talking to have been on a better future in some way, because they're building for that future. So we're all kind of in the same boat. When I talk to friends of mine who are, you know, in places like a Google or like a Meta, where they're actually just trying to hold the line and prevent really much change from happening in order to maintain a certain level of you know, in order to maintain a certain level of, you know, monopolistic dominance in the economy, that's a scary place to be. I think those folks are having a hard time. But over here, where we're, all you know, scrappy builders trying to create something better, it's actually really fun and always exciting, and so my days are pretty dynamic and fun.

Speaker 1:

I definitely can see that leaning into being an active participant in building the future is a good antidote to some of the upheavals as well. I would be remiss not to touch on the fact that a lot of things are changing for a lot of people right now, and so if you can see yourself as an active participant in shaping that change, that probably bodes well for your ability to navigate it. Do you have any advice that you would give for folks who are currently maybe finding themselves, you know, navigating a lot of different new regulations or a lot of different financial priorities changing as a result of these? What advice would you give to someone who's seeking to make an impact today?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'd say, talk to your elders. They have seen so much, so much and can ground us. I think, more honestly, in the historical context that we find ourselves in and that's what's keeping me also really inspired is when I talked to, you know, my dad, who was a part of the public health service, or thought he would be, and then President Reagan cut it as soon as he was about to join, found a way to make it work, and it turned out into like this really beautiful situation where that's how he met my mom, and so there's just like all of these things that we can't control, but that doesn't mean that it's good. It needs to prevent us from living beautiful lives. And so I think, as much as we can be grounded in how our ancestors navigated similar moments, the more calm and and I think, like level headed we can meet this moment.

Speaker 1:

I love that Is. Is there anyone that you look to who models that well? Or just even in general, is there anyone who you would recommend that we invite onto this?

Speaker 2:

podcast. I mean, the person who I'm really just channeling right now is I went to a women of color breakfast on the first day of Black History Month and Dr Shirley Weber opened up the breakfast and she's just always, she always brings the house down. She's so amazing. She's, you know, san Diego local, but Secretary of State of California, and she was talking a lot about how just giving us instructions, you know, and I feel like that was just it was. It was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. And so folks like that, who are just a little older than us but have some, have some really good ideas for how we should be operating. I'm listening to them a lot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, here's to those voices, for sure. And how about your voice? Where can people go to find?

Speaker 2:

you to reach you?

Speaker 1:

Yes, so I am mostly on LinkedIn and you can find me at sydneypthomas on LinkedIn and then, to round us off, you know, as you know, our podcast here is all about building the circuit that is connecting tech, ai, nature and people. What is a piece of advice that you would give people to maintain their own spark of optimism and to keep working on the solutions that that power society will change?

Speaker 2:

I just think what more important thing could you be doing right now that it just is so. It feels so obvious to me that this is exactly where we should be pouring our energy um, not reading all the headlines, not worrying about all the what ifs, and really building in some regaining our own agency around. What actually can we create? I think it's a very back to nature. I think it's a very back to nature. I think it's a very. This whole, like birthing process is very generative and inspiring in and of itself, and so, like, taking to a task and holding on to it tightly is, in and of itself, so empowering and fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, keeping the mission in mind, it sounds like, is part of what should help us stay optimistic, or what can Completely agree there. There's a book that Dr Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson wrote particularly to mobilize people not to be driven, in terms of their climate actions, by fear, but to be motivated by opportunity. It's called what If we Get it Right?

Speaker 2:

Beautiful.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, definitely recommend that as a good read. So, yeah, definitely recommend that as a good read. Um, and yeah, I think that's such a that is the exact kind of positive note, optimistic note, that we would want to end on. Thank you again so much, sydney, for speaking with us and for sharing your insights. Um, we look forward to reconnecting with you another time I'm looking forward to it too.

Speaker 2:

Thank you another time. I'm looking forward to it too. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thanks, thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to subscribe to the Optimist Circuit on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode and let's keep the conversation going.

Speaker 3:

Follow us on LinkedIn, youtube and Instagram at the Optimist Circuit for more insights and inspiration.

Speaker 1:

Until next time, stay optimistic, stay curious and stay inspired.