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Re:Urgent: Sign the petition now by AlchemistCamp on Saturday March 11, 2023 @06:56PM (#35114153)
Why is that? This is small and medium sized venture-backed startups, a sector that’s taken a tiny fraction of US investment but represented a major portion of its GDP growth. They did nothing wrong and were failed by their bank.

Why are small tech startups building something new less deserving than say, giant banks that knowingly took extreme risks in 2008, or giant auto businesses that refused to modernize and truly compete with Japanese competitors in the 80s?

I think it would be refreshing to see a cheaper bailout of small and medium sized businesses actually innovating and building new things instead of giant incumbents.

Re:Urgent: Sign the petition now by doodlesdev on Saturday March 11, 2023 @07:01PM (#35114245)
They did something, they put their money in a bank which was lobbying for less regulations so they could make riskier plays, which put way too much depositor money into MBS (what the actual fuck). They didn't do their due diligence and now they are paying the price. They will receive dividends in advance and any employees which for some reason had money in the bank will still keep their 250k FDIC insured cash. If they had more that's their problem, 250k is a lot.

Anyways, I'm not American so this doesn't affect me directly (not my money), but as an outsider I find it ludicrous how accepting everyone is being about mismanaged banks and companies that didn't do their due dilligence. I thought America was all about owning the consequences to your actions, but when shit hits the fans everyone forgets about it and comes back asking for help from Uncle Sam.

Re:Urgent: Sign the petition now by _dain_ on Saturday March 11, 2023 @07:30PM (#35114716)
>they put their money in a bank which was lobbying for less regulations so they could make riskier plays

my bank does that. your bank does that. every bank on the planet does that. depositors don't have any say in what the bank does.

Re:Urgent: Sign the petition now by AlchemistCamp on Saturday March 11, 2023 @07:46PM (#35114890)
It’s not just Americans. For many non US-citizen founders, SVB was the only US bank that would serve them. It’s hitting Indian startups hard:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/11/silicon-valley-bank-collap...

Re:Urgent: Sign the petition now by TheOtherHobbes on Saturday March 11, 2023 @07:03PM (#35114277)
The investors will try to claw back their money. Their first tactic will be a huge round of job losses.

The "Help us because jobs" line is just mendacious.

Re:Urgent: Sign the petition now by haiti_outlaw on Saturday March 11, 2023 @07:32PM (#35114743)
> actually innovating and building new things instead of giant incumbents.

Let's not use so much lip gloss on this particular pig.

Many startups are just building some shitty apps that exploit labor in this horrible gig economy while they are kept afloat with VC money until they are dumped into the general public via IPO. This marketing fluff has no place here.

Venture capitalists and startup founders are playing the apex of capitalism. Failure and risk is part of the game. Being saved with taxpayer money is antithetical to that.

Re:Urgent: Sign the petition now by bigtex on Saturday March 11, 2023 @07:03PM (#35114287)
Anyone building anything useful or just the next version of the same thing that has been done before?
Re:Urgent: Sign the petition now by corbulo on Saturday March 11, 2023 @07:04PM (#35114304)
Not a giant incumbent?? They were literally on the board of the SF Fed...