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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

> when they should have instead cooperatively organized an LTCM-style consortium bailout for it

I was on the phone with portfolio companies, friends and clients yesterday ensuring they pulled their funds to a back-up bank account. SVB was a national bank. It's not a charity, or even a local bank serving a niche community. It was a big bank, and a badly-run one at that. Nothing they do isn't done by others. I believe in my friends and their missions more than anything SVB was up to. (I'm not a VC.)

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> SVB was a national bank

It was more of a regional bank, specifically one servicing SV, with at most sporadic branches elsewhere, usually just one in a given state in its largest major city (e.g., one in NY: in NYC; one in D.C.; one in Colorado: in Denver). In many states they have no branches (e.g., Florida): https://www.svb.com/locations

> Nothing they do isn't done by others

Then why did so many startups and VCs bank with them?

> my friends and their missions

I would personally be hesitant to use this terminology for others, unless they're actually doing something truly impactful and impressive, like curing some horrible disease, going to Mars, or at least actually in the military on some mission.

> was more of a regional bank, specifically one servicing SV, with at most sporadic branches elsewhere

Top 20 by assets and with a branch in New York. That’s a national bank.

> why did so many startups and VCs bank with them?

They were first and did what they did well. That doesn’t make them preciously unique.

> would personally be hesitant to use this terminology for others, unless they're actually doing something truly impactful and impressive, like curing some horrible disease, going to Mars, or at least actually in the military on some mission

Over a bank?

> Over a bank?

Over a financial contagion that could sap the liquidity and solvency of the startups these VCs have invested in, and possibly cause harm to the wider economy (which I doubt they care very much about)?

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