The Rise and Fall of SVB 

For more than 40-years, Silicon Valley Bank was the go-to financial institution for tech startups and venture capitalists looking to disrupt industries far and wide. Since its founding in 1983, SVB provided critical financial support to firms such as Shopify, a16z, ZipRecruiter and Roku. According to SVB itself, 44% of all U.S. ventured-backed tech and healthcare IPOs were part of its client roster.
And now, this once-mighty institution has fallen from grace in what is the largest bank failure since the 2008 global financial crisis. SVB certainly collapsed as a result of poor risk management, but it wasn’t entirely the bank’s own fault. The fed and a handful of VCs played a key role in bringing Silicon Valley Bank to its knees, destroying their own industry in the process.
Leading up the collapse, the CEO of SVB Greg Becker begged its VC clients to stay calm saying “If everybody is telling each other that SVB is in trouble, that will be a challenge. Stay calm. That’s my ask. We’ve been there for 40 years, supporting you, supporting the portfolio companies, supporting venture capitalists.”
But the VCs showed no mercy.
In today’s video, I explore what happened and what this means for the future of the tech industry.
- ABOUT PROBABLY SOMETHING -
Hey, I'm Kunal. I'm a Swedish founder in NYC and ex-investment banker (Lazard M&A). You can think of this as my personal business blog, but in video format.
I create videos about finance, business strategy, M&A and mental models to help me better understand our complex business world. Through my work, I've mostly covered tech, media, healthcare, sports and holdcos so those are naturally the topics I gravitate towards.
My goal is to constantly challenge myself to become a better business operator, investor and thinker by studying world class founders, financiers and investors. I hope this channel will help you do the same.
Just sharing what I'm learning along the way and documenting my journey - nothing on here should be considered financial advice.
Feel free to reach out: kun.chauh@gmail.com
-Kunal Chauhan