LA Venture Podcast

EPISODE 193

Sydney Thomas — Symphonic Capital

October 31, 2023

Pre-Seed

Unveil the truth about early stage funding and candid startup journeys with Sydney Thomas from Symphonic Capital. Tune in to learn more about:

*Sydney's journey from Precursor to Symphonic Capital

*Dive into the benefits of a long-term view in pre-seed funding

*Discover the power of direct and candid feedback in entrepreneurship and more!

Full transcript

I'm with Sydney Thomas. Sydney is the founder and GP at Symphonic Capital, a pre-seed fund with a long view. The fund is focused on FinTech and health and wellness for underserved communities. Before Symphonic, Sydney was the first hire at Precursor. Sydney, thanks so much for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, a good chance for me to get to know you and Symphonic a little better.

I thought we'd start there, start with Symphonic and just what does it mean to be a seed fund with a long view?

Yeah, it's such a great question, so for me, I've spent the last seven-ish years in pre-seed and seen this proliferation of pre seed funds all with pretty much the same strategy, which is that we're going to de risk our capital by having many shots on goal. My world view is that the best way to impact your own risk profile is to increase the amount of support. So instead of trying to stretch yourself across many, many, many companies, focus. So, we do about six to eight deals a year, and we focus a lot on how we are helping them post investment.