Where Optimism Meets Action

Purple concentric circles logo with the word 'Optimistic Labs' written next to it.
A diverse group of people sitting around a large table in a modern conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows, working on laptops and engaging in a discussion.
People attending a business meeting in a conference room with a presenter, laptops, gift bags, and a presentation screen.
Five young men in casual and formal attire, jumping and posing playfully in a covered outdoor walkway during daytime. 
The Team
A man with glasses, a beard, and short brown hair, wearing a black shirt, smiling against a plain light background.

Meet Seth

Seth Cohen believes there is tremendous power at the intersection of storytelling, community, and action. As co-founder of Optimistic Labs, he works with leaders to help organizations turn community into a strategic advantage—designing ecosystems that connect people through shared purpose, knowledge, and curiosity. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience across media, philanthropy, and civic leadership, Seth focuses on helping organizations cultivate communities that deepen trust, strengthen networks, and create lasting momentum.

Most recently, Seth served as Chief Impact Officer at Forbes and founder of the Forbes Impact Lab, where he helped connect global audiences, philanthropic partners, and leading brands around initiatives focused on business and social impact. Prior to Forbes, he was a Senior Director at Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, building large-scale partnerships that engaged emerging leaders and institutions worldwide. Earlier in his career, Seth was a nationally recognized corporate attorney in Atlanta and has held numerous nonprofit leadership roles focused on civic engagement and community development.

A woman with long brown hair, wearing a black blazer, white shirt, blue jeans, and beige sneakers, sitting on a brown leather sofa against a brick wall, smiling with one knee crossed over the other.

Meet Liz

Liz Russell believes that strong communities depend on systems that help people collaborate, share knowledge, and turn ideas into action. As co-founder of Optimistic Labs, she works with leaders to design the operational foundations that allow communities to grow—building the structures that connect people through shared purpose, knowledge, and curiosity.

Drawing on more than a decade of experience across SaaS, emergency management, and GovTech, Liz specializes in turning complexity into clear, scalable systems. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Customer Success at Forerunner, where she scaled the company’s Customer Success organization and strengthened retention, customer insight, and cross-functional alignment across product and leadership teams. Earlier in her career, she was Director of Product for the Perdix Knowledge Management System, and managed FEMA and HUD disaster recovery initiatives at H2O Partners, overseeing teams responsible for administering more than $2.6 billion in federal funding.

PLUS

We work alongside a trusted network of fractional executives and specialists who support our clients across strategy, technology, content, and community operations. This approach allows us to match each organization with the expertise it needs. The result? A flexible, high-trust model that brings experienced operators into the work while keeping the focus on building the systems that help communities thrive.

Our Difference

What makes us different?

Applied Optimism.

Most organizations approach community the wrong way. They start with tools—platforms, events, newsletters, campaigns—and hope connection follows.

But tools don’t create community. People do.

At Optimistic Labs, our work is grounded in Applied Optimism: the belief that meaningful progress happens when people are connected by purpose, equipped with knowledge, and inspired by curiosity about what’s possible.

Applied Optimism isn’t blind positivity. It’s a practical method for building systems that bring people together and move ideas forward.

Every community we help design is built around three core elements:

Line drawing of two hands holding a group of people above a target with a bullseye
Line drawing of an open book with a globe sitting above it, representing global education or learning.

Purpose

People gather around something that matters. We help organizations clarify the mission, values, and shared identity that give a community its reason to exist—and make people proud to belong.

Knowledge

Communities grow when people learn from one another. We design ways for insight, information, and experience to flow across networks—turning individual expertise into collective intelligence.

Illustration of a magnifying glass outlined in blue.

Wonder

The best communities create energy, curiosity, and possibility. We help organizations cultivate the sense that something meaningful is happening here—that this is a place where ideas, relationships, and opportunities can grow.

When purpose, knowledge, and wonder come together, community becomes more than engagement. It becomes momentum. And in a world of accelerating technology and automation, that human momentum is the advantage that lasts.

The Latest from Optimistic Labs

Connect With Us

Let’s get to know one another.

Share a few details below and we’ll reach out to start a conversation.