About GoodBread
We believe in bread that rises for everyone.
GoodBread was founded on the belief that access to capital is one of the most powerful forces for economic mobility — and that it's unevenly distributed in ways that are not inevitable.
The Origin Story
It started with a conversation over coffee.
Noa and Seth first met at the Firehouse Cafe in Buffalo, New York — introduced by a mutual friend who thought they might find some common ground. They did. Within an hour, they had sketched out the core insight that would become GoodBread: the economics of microlending are broken, but they don't have to be.
The cost to underwrite a $10,000 loan was nearly the same as the cost to underwrite a $100,000 loan. That's why every CDFI, credit union, and community bank had set a loan minimum — not because they didn't want to help smaller borrowers, but because the math didn't work. The borrowers below that floor weren't getting rejected because they were bad credit risks. They were getting rejected because of fixed costs that had nothing to do with their creditworthiness.
That's the problem GoodBread exists to solve. Not through charity, but through better technology, better data, and a framework built from the ground up to make small loans economically viable while making better lending decisions.
Our Mission
Capital that rises. Infrastructure that lasts.
GoodBread's mission is to make access to capital more equitable by making it more economically viable. We do this through two interlocking products: lending infrastructure for the organizations that serve small business owners, and a borrower preparation platform for the small business owners themselves.
The whole system is designed to be self-reinforcing. Better-prepared borrowers make lending more efficient. More efficient lending makes better capital available to more borrowers. And the whole thing rises together.
The Team
We've been in the room where it happens.
Noa Simons
CEO & Co-Founder
Noa spent a decade working at the intersection of community development finance and technology before co-founding GoodBread. She's obsessed with the question of why good capital doesn't reach the people who need it most — and what it would take to fix that at scale.
Seth Levine
CSO & Co-Founder
Seth is a serial entrepreneur and investor who has started and scaled multiple mission-aligned ventures. He brings a builder's mentality to the question of making microlending economically viable — and a genuine belief that the economics of doing good and doing well are not in conflict.
Sean Stewart
Chief Credit Officer
Sean has spent his career in CDFI lending and community banking, underwriting thousands of small business loans. He led the development of GoodBread's novel underwriting framework and is deeply committed to building a credit evaluation process that is both more accurate and more equitable.
David Baskin
CTO
David is a software engineer and technologist who has built products at the intersection of financial data and user experience. He leads GoodBread's technology strategy and the development of the Knead to Grow platform.
Our Values
What we believe in.
Fairness by design.
Not just as an aspiration, but as a design constraint. Every product decision is evaluated through the lens of whether it makes the system more equitable, not less.
Radical transparency.
We tell borrowers why we made the decision we made. We tell partners what we can and can't do. We tell our team the truth. Transparency is how trust is built.
Community first.
The communities we serve are not markets to be extracted from. They are ecosystems to invest in. We're building infrastructure that makes those communities stronger.
Growth is earned.
Real growth takes real work. We're not building for hype — we're building for the long haul. We believe in sustainable, compounding improvement over flash.
Data with dignity.
Your financial data tells the story of your life. We treat it with the respect that deserves — never selling it, never weaponizing it, always using it in your interest.
Partners & Supporters
We don't do this alone.
H/L Ventures
Lead Investor
ImpactAssets
Impact Partner
NY Empire State Development
Government Partner
Deshpande Foundation
Foundation Partner
Palette Community Cafe
Community Partner
Advisors
Ron Rogge
Research Advisor, Entrepreneurial Psychology
Alex Vogenthaler
Strategy & Capital Markets
Kevin Raper
Community Lending & CDFI Policy
H/L Ventures
Investor & Venture Advisor
Ready to rise together?
Whether you're a lender, a business support organization, or a small business owner trying to grow — we're here.