In this episode, I sit down with Noa Simons, founder and CEO of Good Bread, a new kind of small business lender working to reinvent how entrepreneurs access capital. If you’ve ever tried to raise money—through banks, credit unions, investors, or anywhere in between—you know it’s never one-size-fits-all. Even in communities with great lending institutions, many founders still fall through the cracks.

Noa’s on a mission to fix that.

Good Bread is a startup blending technology, psychology, and trust to create a more human, accessible path to capital. One of the most fascinating pieces of their approach is the Boss Index—a behavioral data tool her team uses to understand creditworthiness far beyond a traditional credit score.

In this conversation, Noa and I dig into:

Why access to capital is so difficult for so many entrepreneurs

How her co-founder relationships were built and how she's raising her own investment dollars

How behavioral data can create more equitable lending

What a “human-centered” underwriting model actually looks like

The role trust plays in entrepreneurship and local economies

Why overlooked regions (like ours) are full of untapped possibility

If you’re interested in startups, money, trust, or building meaningful businesses in emerging regions, this episode is for you.

Learn more about Noa and Good Bread at www.goodbread.net

Good Bread, Good Data, Better Lending: Reimagining Access to Capital

Rust Belt Startup