Ever wondered why some brilliant startups never get funded?
The answer might lie in unconscious biases that plague investment decisions. In this eye-opening conversation, we explore how Illumen Capital is revolutionizing access to capital through their innovative bias reduction program.

🔍 What you’ll learn in this episode:

• The research behind bias in investing: How identical profiles with only the race of a photo changed investor decisions.
• Practical tools for reducing bias: From standardized first interview questions to multiple reviewers in hiring and investment processes.
• Real-world impact: Illumen’s portfolio has achieved gender parity across teams, proving that reducing bias isn’t just ethical—it’s profitable.
• A success story: A rural Texas founder nearly overlooked, who secured funding thanks to a fresh perspective that recognized opportunity others had missed.
• The human + tech balance: Why the most promising companies combine technological innovation with deep human understanding.
• Life & investing advice: How slowing down decision-making processes can actually accelerate long-term success.

About our guest

Joanna Kuang is the Senior Vice President of Product and Impact at Illumen Capital, where she leads efforts to dismantle systemic bias in investing and expand access to capital for underrepresented founders.

📌 Connect with Joanne on LinkedIn: Joanna Kuang

🌐 Learn more about Illumen Capital: Illumen Capital Website

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What happens when communities invisible to the digital world suddenly appear on a map? Lives change. Resources flow. Possibilities emerge.

Rebecca Firth, Executive Director of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), leads a global movement that’s reshaping how we think about maps, data, and community agency. With 750,000 volunteer mappers across 90 countries, HOT has illuminated regions home to nearly a billion people—bringing them out of digital darkness.

Maps aren’t just for navigation—they’re critical tools for disaster response, public health, climate resilience, and social equity. Yet millions remain unmapped, unseen by systems meant to support them.

HOT is changing that by putting mapping power directly in the hands of local communities. Through initiatives like their FAIR project, they’re training neighborhood-specific AI models with communities, not on them—ensuring data reflects lived realities.

From flood planning in Liberia to forest conservation in Guatemala, the results are transformative. In Sierra Leone, a map source reads simply: “I live here.”

Rebecca shares how open data, community ownership, and ethical AI can shift the global map toward equity—and why mapping is one of the most powerful tools for justice today.

🎧 Listen now to learn how you can help build a more resilient, inclusive world—one map at a time.

👉 Start mapping or sign up for the newsletter at hotosm.org

🔗 Explore more links: linktr.ee/hotosm
📸 Follow along on Instagram: @_hotosm

Sponsored by EVCHARGE4U—your partner for fast, reliable EV charging solutions for homes, businesses, and fleets. Powering a cleaner tomorrow, today.

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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.

💡 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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