Daily Crunch: Silicon Valley Bank goes bust — regulators take control of $175B+ in deposits

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Hi, Crunchers,

Today, there’s only one story on everyone’s lips: The sudden and dramatic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 40-year-old Silicon Valley institution. With $209 billion of assets under management at the time of its failure, it’s the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

A huge number of startups suddenly found themselves in a pickle as the bank went through a Swift-Velocity Breakdown. In this special edition of the Daily Crunch, we summarize what the Sudden Value Bust means across the industry.

— Haje

The TechCrunch Top Story

• Regulators stepping in: Natasha M reports that the bank and its 17 branches were closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The agency appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver.
• So, er, what happened?: (TC+): Alex can be trusted to provide the context, and concludes that it seems like the rumor of SVB being in trouble caused a run on the bank, which put it in actual trouble soon after.
• What the founders think: Several of my colleagues took to the (virtual) streets and got the lowdown on how founders are reacting to the bank’s collapse.

The demise of Silicon Valley Bank

Before the bank got shut down by regulators, a lot of things happened very quickly:

• For you, special price: Manish and Ingrid caught wind that Silicon Valley Bank was in talks to sell itself.
• Get out while you can: Natasha M and Alex reported that VC firms started advising their portfolio companies to move money out of SVB (TC+).
• A bump in the road: Natasha M wrote that some SVB customers were struggling to wire funds out of the bank.
• In free fall: Natasha M and Alex followed up with their report that SVB’s shares were tanking, as the whole mess was unfolding.
• Filling the void: Never ones for wasting a good crisis, startups are leaping into the breach to fill the vacuum SVB is leaving behind for the ecosystem, Natasha M and Mary Ann reported.
• Maybe aim better: You might imagine that someone at Silicon Valley Bank would have paused to think: “Hmm, maybe today is not the right time to declare that we’re shoring up our balance sheet,” Connie writes, and concludes that SVB shot itself in the foot rather spectacularly in the wake of crypto bank Silvergate’s announcement that it’s shutting down. Jacquelyn analyzed the Silvergate downward spiral for TC+.
• So, er, what now?: As SVB funds are locked up (at least until Monday, regulators say), how do you meet payroll, etc.? Alex takes a closer look at what startups are up against (TC+).

Building a lean B2B startup growth stack

Selecting the right tool for the job is easy when you already know exactly how to proceed.

Most B2B growth marketers don’t have a blueprint to work from, however, which is why Primer CEO Keith Putnam-Delaney shared a guest post with TC+ that identifies which tools are most appropriate for early-stage, midstage and late-stage startups.

“The current budget-constrained environment should be seen as a net positive by marketers,” he writes. “It will force teams to think deeply about what’s absolutely necessary, which tools will add efficiency (or subtract from it).”

Building a lean B2B startup growth stack

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And some other news too

Okay, fine, there were other things happening besides SVB going straight to hell without passing “go” today as well. Here’s a smattering of things worth reading across the rest of the site…

A lot of news in cybersecurity today, as Carly reports that the SEC charges Blackbaud for failing to disclose the ‘full impact’ of a ransomware attack; Zack writes that Telehealth startup Cerebral shared millions of patients’ data with advertisers; and Zack also reports that PeopleGrove security lapse exposed users’ personal information. Meanwhile, Lorenzo dove in to explore how the FBI proved a remote admin tool was actually malware.

And here are some non-SVB, non-cybercrime headlines for you as well. Aren’t we generous today:

• De-risking hardware: Haje reports that Prelaunch assembles a pre-seed round to help hardware founders pre-build the right pre-products. Say that three times fast.  
• More Salesforce layoffs: Ron reports that the long goodbye at Salesforce continues with more layoffs.
• HomePad: Romain covers that Apple could reportedly release a HomePod with a display.
• Not ready to fly the coup: Bird still has a long way to go to reach profitability, Rebecca and Alex report.
• Don’t call it a comeback: Gowalla returns to see if location-based networking is ready for its mainstream moment, Darrell reports.