<story><title>Urgent: Sign the petition now</title><url>https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/urgent-sign-the-petition-now-thousands-of-startups-and-hundreds-of-thousands-of-startup-jobs-are-at-risk/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>garry</author><text>Many startups chose SVB because they were the ones willing to open a bank account for them at all.&lt;p&gt;I remember going to a branch of Bank of America to open a bank account for Posterous and not being able to.</text></item><item><author>axlee</author><text>There was nothing arbitrary about that choice. This bank promised better deals BECAUSE they were not careful enough about the risk it entailed. That was their competitive advantage, and they made bank for it. Well, tough luck, now it&amp;#x27;s not anymore: it has nothing to do with being a large bank or a small bank, it has to do with healthy business practices.</text></item><item><author>garry</author><text>These are depositors of a bank. Most startups only have one bank.&lt;p&gt;Startups should live or die because they create good products and solve real problems in real markets, not because they made an arbitrary choice like which bank they started using.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s also a real risk of bank contagion if it is only safe to deposit in the largest banks.</text></item><item><author>nocoiner</author><text>LOL, nope. Not interested in taking another spin on the “privatize gain, socialize loss” merry-go-round.&lt;p&gt;The banks had to be saved in 2008 because they were, like, the financial system. I don’t see why private companies and funds that are much less integral to the functioning of the economy as a whole should be saved by the public fisc.&lt;p&gt;Sorry about your disruption.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>klyrs</author><text>So let&amp;#x27;s get this straight.  You want a bank who will take risks willy-nilly on start-ups.  But you also want that bank to be subject to regulations to prevent banks from taking risks.  But those regulations exist, and SVB begged for exemptions to them, so they could take risks.  But your experience with more-regulated banks shows that they&amp;#x27;re too risk averse.  What exactly are you asking for here?&lt;p&gt;You want your flock made whole.  I get that.  But are you also asking for regulators to kill the startup economy by shutting it out of banking?</text></comment>
<story><title>Urgent: Sign the petition now</title><url>https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/urgent-sign-the-petition-now-thousands-of-startups-and-hundreds-of-thousands-of-startup-jobs-are-at-risk/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>garry</author><text>Many startups chose SVB because they were the ones willing to open a bank account for them at all.&lt;p&gt;I remember going to a branch of Bank of America to open a bank account for Posterous and not being able to.</text></item><item><author>axlee</author><text>There was nothing arbitrary about that choice. This bank promised better deals BECAUSE they were not careful enough about the risk it entailed. That was their competitive advantage, and they made bank for it. Well, tough luck, now it&amp;#x27;s not anymore: it has nothing to do with being a large bank or a small bank, it has to do with healthy business practices.</text></item><item><author>garry</author><text>These are depositors of a bank. Most startups only have one bank.&lt;p&gt;Startups should live or die because they create good products and solve real problems in real markets, not because they made an arbitrary choice like which bank they started using.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s also a real risk of bank contagion if it is only safe to deposit in the largest banks.</text></item><item><author>nocoiner</author><text>LOL, nope. Not interested in taking another spin on the “privatize gain, socialize loss” merry-go-round.&lt;p&gt;The banks had to be saved in 2008 because they were, like, the financial system. I don’t see why private companies and funds that are much less integral to the functioning of the economy as a whole should be saved by the public fisc.&lt;p&gt;Sorry about your disruption.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dragontamer</author><text>&amp;gt;  Many startups chose SVB because they were the ones willing to open a bank account for them at all.&lt;p&gt;I mean, given the epic scale, herd-mentality of tech startup types to cause a $46 Billion bank run in a singular day (March 9th), can you blame them?&lt;p&gt;Its clear that other banks have seen systemic risk in focusing on this sector, and are pickier about choosing their customers.&lt;p&gt;-------&lt;p&gt;I get that this is a problem in any case. But the systemic risk &amp;#x2F; scale associated with the tech startup scene has just been proven to the world. &amp;quot;Other banks didn&amp;#x27;t want to take $100+ Billions in startup deposits&amp;quot; is beginning to look like the smarter move, given the circumstances.</text></comment>