What the loss of Silicon Valley Bank means for Silicon Valley

Silicon valleysvbsvbsvbsvbsvb is a tough place to be a banker. Startup bosses call with references but no revenue. Loans can seldom be secured against physical assets. Many clients fail. () netted nearly half of America’s venture-backed technology and life-science firms as clients by providing what a venture capitalist calls the “the white-glove, red-carpet treatment”. This was not just about the lunches and events it put on for clients: established itself as a reliable cog in Silicon Valley’s dream machine. In the , Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, a grand venture-capital outfit, lamented the loss as akin to a “death in the family”.Thanks to regulators, has not meant a Silicon Valley cash crunch. Tech workers need only worry about their jobs as much as they did before. For some, relief at a bullet dodged has turned into anger at the companies quickest to pull deposits, which helped bring down their beloved bank. The next stage of grief ought to be sober risk management. According to the venture capitalist, the chance to replace as banker to Silicon Valley is a “tremendous opportunity”. There will be no shortage of institutions with eyes on the $300bn of venture-capital dry powder waiting to be ploughed into startups. But ’s collapse will scale back Silicon Valley’s ambitions in other ways.