Getting Rich Together

Most women wait until they feel qualified to invest. Sydney Thomas told her coworkers she was going to be a VC before she knew the first thing about it. On Getting Rich Together, host Syama Bunten talks with Sydney, founder and general partner of Symphonic Capital, about how to become a venture capitalist by betting on yourself first. Her money instincts started early. She sold bracelets and Cutco knives to pay for what she wanted and saved so much that her mom joked she never knew where Sydney kept it. Later, she lived on $28K a year in New York and learned exactly what enough looked like. That self-reliance shaped how she chose to break into venture capital. Sydney shares how cold emails and six months of persistent calls to a venture capital partner who wasn't hiring eventually opened the door to her first opportunity at Precursor Ventures. She explains how she built a shadow portfolio before she could write a check and why that experience helped shape her investment philosophy. She also gets honest about starting a venture capital fund before she had every answer and why she thinks perfection will not keep women safe. Her story is a real look at how to become a venture capitalist and what it asks of an emerging fund manager. If you have ever waited to feel ready before you invest, press play. Sydney's story shows how women interested in venture capital can begin by making the decision to bet on themselves. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Betting on Yourself Before Anyone Else Does 02:33 San Diego Childhood, Side Hustles, and Saving Money 09:46 Duke, New York, and Learning What Enough Means 19:09 Business School, Gig Contracts, and a Full Scholarship 29:51 How to Become a Venture Capitalist Through Persistence 34:50 Building a Shadow Portfolio Through a Podcast 39:21 Starting Symphonic Capital Before Having Every Answer 42:58 Why Risk Is the Job in Venture 45:01 Nervous System Work and Running Your Own Race 47:59 Joyful Legacy, Community, and Money as a Tool Find more from Syama Bunten: Your money story may be shaping your financial life more than you realize. After hundreds of conversations with women at all stages of their financial lives, Syama distilled the questions that helped her understand her own patterns into The Money Story Reset, a free guide featuring five guided reflections and personal stories from her journey. Download The Money Story Reset and begin uncovering the beliefs behind your financial decisions: https://wealthcatalyst.com/reset/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syama.co/ Join Syama's Substack: https://thewealthcatalystwithsyama.substack.com/ Website: https://wealthcatalyst.com/ Big Delta Capital: https://www.bigdeltacapital.com/ Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Most venture capital was never built with women in mind. Naseem Sayani got tired of waiting for the system to change, so she decided to help change where the money goes. In this conversation with host Syama Bunten on Getting Rich Together, Naseem shares her journey into venture capital for female founders and what it takes to move more funding toward overlooked businesses. Before co-founding Emmeline Ventures, she built her career in consulting and digital innovation at firms including Booz & Company and Boston Consulting Group. Growing up in a traditional South Asian household in Los Angeles, she was taught to prioritize education, save money, and prepare for marriage. But she had different plans for her future. Naseem shares how she went from implementing major business decisions to wanting a seat at the table where those decisions were made. That ambition led her to business school and eventually into venture investing. She explains how watching female founders struggle to raise capital pushed her to start angel investing in women-led companies and later leave her consulting career to write bigger checks. She also discusses the lack of women in investment decision-making roles, how women's health investing has evolved since 2019, and why bringing more women into venture capital matters. And she explains why the differences in how male and female founders experience fundraising need to be discussed more openly. Listen now to hear how Naseem turned her experience in consulting into a mission to fund more female founders, why individual angel investments weren't enough for her, and what she believes needs to change to get more capital into women's hands. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Why Venture Capital Wasn't Built for Women 02:55 Growing Up in a Gendered Immigrant Household 07:58 Wanting to Be an ER Doctor Like Clooney 10:20 Choosing Campus Life Over the Marriage Track 16:52 Starting a Career Amid 9/11, Enron, and Acquisitions 23:26 Financing an MBA and a Paid Sabbatical 32:05 Building a Product Studio Inside Booz and BCG 39:08 Watching the Gender Gap in Startup Funding 43:07 Leaving a Partner Track to Go Full Venture 51:23 Building a Legacy for Female Founder Funding Connect with Naseem Sayani: Listen to The Capital Flex podcast Find more from Syama Bunten: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syama.co/ Join Syama's Substack: https://thewealthcatalystwithsyama.substack.com/ Website: https://wealthcatalyst.com Download Syama's Free Resources: https://wealthcatalyst.com/resources Speaking: https://syamabunten.com Big Delta Capital: www.bigdeltacapital.com Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

You can have the will, the trust, and the estate plan and still not know what to do first when your spouse dies. Samina Bari learned that in 2023, when her husband died suddenly in an accident. Her financial advisor sent her a PDF checklist. She ended up typing Social Security questions into Google. On Getting Rich Together, host Syama Bunten talks with Samina, Founder and CEO of Farewell. Samina spent the last decade of her operating career focused on biotech M&A, advising CEOs and boards on investor strategy and positioning. She explains where estate planning for women falls short and why a checklist of steps after the death of a spouse rarely helps someone navigate the first days of grief. She explains the questions she needed answered in those early days and why she struggled to find a clear path forward. Her story shows how financial independence for women can start with small, deliberate decisions. She bought a condo at 21 with a lowball offer and refused to budge. She took a significant pay cut to get inside Pfizer and shares what she weighed before saying "yes". She also makes the case that the great wealth transfer needs better infrastructure to help families move assets with more clarity, especially as more inherited wealth passes to women. Press play to understand what comes after the estate plan and why preparing for the administrative side of loss matters before you ever need it. Then keep the conversation going at the Wealth Catalyst Summit, a full-day event. Claim your seat at wealthcatalyst.com. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 When an Estate Plan Leaves You Without Answers 02:55 Rejecting Expectations and Choosing Independence 06:44 Night Shifts, Kiplinger's, and a Condo at 21 13:52 Samina Bari's 20-Year Plan From Hospital to Lipitor 19:13 Salary Negotiation and Knowing When to Walk Away 28:30 Building an Advisor Team, Wills, and Trusts Early 31:44 Tesla Stock and a First Angel Check 36:13 Sudden Loss and Writing Don't Call Me Widow 43:41 What to Do First When Your Spouse Dies 50:26 Why the Great Wealth Transfer Needs a System Connect with Samina Bari: Visit the Farewell website: https://withfarewell.com/ Visit Samina's website: https://saminabari.com/ Find more from Syama Bunten: Your money story may be shaping your financial life more than you realize. After hundreds of conversations with women at all stages of their financial lives, Syama distilled the questions that helped her understand her own patterns into The Money Story Reset, a free guide featuring five guided reflections and personal stories from her journey. Download The Money Story Reset and begin uncovering the beliefs behind your financial decisions: https://wealthcatalyst.com/reset/ Apply For Your Seat @ The 4th Wealth Catalyst Summit | San Francisco, October 16: https://wealthcatalyst.com/sf2026/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syama.co/ Join Syama's Substack: https://thewealthcatalystwithsyama.substack.com/ Website: https://wealthcatalyst.com/ Big Delta Capital: https://www.bigdeltacapital.com/ Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Every 18 years, the same money story repeats. First comes a speculative gold rush, then a reckoning. Astrologer Ophira Edut traced that pattern from Jamestown to the 2008 crash, and she says we have entered another corrective cycle. If you have ever wondered what financial astrology and market cycles could reveal about your own money choices, this conversation is for you. On Getting Rich Together, host Syama Bunten sits down with Ophira Edut, a bestselling author, astrologer, and one half of The AstroTwins and co-founder of Astrostyle.com. Ophira grew up in an immigrant family in Detroit where she and her twin sister earned their own spending money through dog walking, babysitting, calligraphy, and other entrepreneurial projects. She sold her first business, HUES magazine, at 26 and later built a thriving astrology business with her sister without a single outside investor. Her path makes a real case for astrology for entrepreneurs. Ophira explains what the North Node in Aquarius 2026 shift could mean for AI, crypto, and the economy through March 2028. She shares a Kabbalah lesson that shaped the way she thinks about desire, abundance, and money, and why she treats money as energy you attract so you can share it. Listen for the spotlight and lighthouse question she wants every woman to ask herself right now. Press play to hear how Ophira reads financial astrology and market cycles, and what it could mean for your next move. Then take the conversation further at a Freedom Tour salon near you or at the Wealth Catalyst Summit in San Francisco this October 16. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Meet Ophira Edut of The AstroTwins 03:00 Detroit Roots, Painted Jeans, and Teenage Hustles 14:02 A Sassy Contest, Hues Magazine, and First Exit 24:04 Gloria Steinem, Ms., and Landing Teen People 31:40 Losing the Cash Cow and Launching Astrostyle 36:12 Never Late Horoscopes and Learning Financial Forecasting 46:59 How Ophira Thinks About Investing Her Capital 52:40 Financial Astrology and Market Cycles Through 2028 1:02:38 Money as Energy and the Lighthouse Question 1:07:52 Legacy, Lifelong Learning, and Where to Find Ophira Find more from Syama Bunten: Your money story may be shaping your financial life more than you realize. After hundreds of conversations with women at all stages of their financial lives, Syama distilled the questions that helped her understand her own patterns into The Money Story Reset, a free guide featuring five guided reflections and personal stories from her journey. Download The Money Story Reset and begin uncovering the beliefs behind your financial decisions: https://wealthcatalyst.com/reset/ Apply For Your Seat @ The 4th Wealth Catalyst Summit | San Francisco, October 16: https://wealthcatalyst.com/sf2026/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syama.co/ Join Syama's Substack: https://thewealthcatalystwithsyama.substack.com/ Website: https://wealthcatalyst.com/ Big Delta Capital: https://www.bigdeltacapital.com/ Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Wealth Catalyst is where women go to take the conversation further, and Leah Solivan's journey from building TaskRabbit to backing the next generation of founders fits that mission perfectly. Two percent. Leah says that's the share of women who receive venture capital funding for their businesses. After spending years raising money as a founder, she now sits on the other side of the table, investing in companies and working to expand who gets access to capital. Host Syama Bunten talks with Leah Solivan, founder of TaskRabbit and Managing Director of Precedent.vc, about the TaskRabbit founder story that started with a $27,000 pension and eventually led to an acquisition by IKEA. Leah shares how she went from knowing almost nothing about venture capital to learning how to pitch investors and raise money for her company. An email to the CEO of Zipcar became a pivotal connection, opening the door to mentorship, warm introductions, and some of TaskRabbit's first angel investors. Those early relationships shaped how Leah thinks about investing today. For anyone interested in angel investing for beginners or wondering how to become an angel investor, she shares the story behind the first check she wrote into someone else's company and why backing founders became the natural next chapter after TaskRabbit. Listen to hear how she chose IKEA over two other offers, how she built a career in venture after the acquisition, and what she is teaching her own kids about money. Join the Wealth Catalyst Summit, a full-day event in San Francisco this October 16, and claim your seat at wealthcatalyst.com. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Leah Solivan's early entrepreneurial spark in Massachusetts 06:19 Choosing a college for its ballet program 09:34 Landing an engineering job during the dot com bust 11:14 Using an IBM pension to fund TaskRabbit 17:03 The Cold Email That Led to Her First Angel Investors 19:22 Learning How to Pitch Investors 25:04 How to become an angel investor herself 28:44 Choosing IKEA over two other acquisition offers 35:05 Launching Precedent VC and Breaking Precedent 42:29 Why venture capital still fails women founders Find more from Syama Bunten: Your money story may be shaping your financial life more than you realize. After hundreds of conversations with women at all stages of their financial lives, Syama distilled the questions that helped her understand her own patterns into The Money Story Reset, a free guide featuring five guided reflections and personal stories from her journey. Download The Money Story Reset and begin uncovering the beliefs behind your financial decisions: https://wealthcatalyst.com/reset/ Apply For Your Seat @ The 4th Wealth Catalyst Summit | San Francisco, October 16: https://wealthcatalyst.com/sf2026/ Register to Attend a Salon Near You: https://wealthcatalyst.com/salons/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syama.co/ Join Syama's Substack: https://thewealthcatalystwithsyama.substack.com/ Website: https://wealthcatalyst.com/ Big Delta Capital: https://www.bigdeltacapital.com/ Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm