Silicon Valley Techno-Utopianism

ok this is serious now tv is at stake

From an 8-K just filed: Roku has more than a quarter of its cash at SVB. Roku "does not know to what extent the Company will be able to recover its cash on deposit at SVB."https://t.co/mvvW4GEpX1

— Stephen Nellis (@StephenNellis) March 10, 2023

i’m doing the jack nicholson hand rubbing gif right now

A few friends absolutely roasted today. Terrible.

fwiw as someone very unqualified to speak on this the payroll stuff seems like it’ll resolve itself whenever svb gets un-ddos’d, if they are just acting as a conduit between company’s bank and employee banks for ripple - there is money coming in the door that can’t be touched other than for being sent out the door to employee accounts, but right now the switchboard is fully lit up so they gotta wait.

the companies that are funding payroll through accounts held at svb, however…

i think one problem is that banking infrastructure in the us is literally all in COBOL, perhaps the us government could hire elon to help with a full rewrite?

cobol is nice its just doing its thing

doubt anyones really gonna lose big money on this mb a lil haircut, tho the disruption could be bad for some businesses

379 8-Ks filed today, most declaring exposure to SVB

https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=&CIK=&type=8-K&owner=include&count=100&action=getcurrent

the amount of life sciences and tech companies in that list is pretty lol

here is the money 8-k, plucked from the middle of the list https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0000719739/000119312523067777/d450664d8k.htm

presumably because biotech companies go public earlier (so file 8-Ks) rather than anything to do with SVB's customers being mostly biotech?

it’s because a lot of biotech companies banked with svb. nothing to do with timing of their IPOs

ok but the timing of their IPOs is relevant because if it hadn't happened yet then they wouldn't need to file an 8-K. that's not a list of SVB customers. it's a list of public SVB customers.

why did so many (public) biotechs in particular bank with SVB?

I vaguely remember some conspiracy theory stuff about SVB - like, if you're in the know, you know what that means...

George Soros written all over it

damn that guys everywhere

george if youre reading this please send me a check i will do whatever woke activities you require

kind of a wild situation, doesnt seem ideal

Practically all the founders I know have frozen accounts right now.

Don’t think we ever fully appreciated how integral SVB is to the startup ecosystem.

— Ed Elson (@edels0n) March 10, 2023

Just got an email from Wrapbook, the entertainment payroll service, saying their accounts were with SVB. So, yeah, I think this scenario is more than likely.

— Henry Baker (@econobaker) March 10, 2023

another payroll company

We (Rippling) discovered yesterday that Silicon Valley Bank had unexpected solvency challenges. Just now, we learned that the FDIC had stepped in and effectively shut down SVB.

— Parker Conrad (@parkerconrad) March 10, 2023

"But if you need a few bucks to tide you over, send your paypal address and we'll see what we can muster up.."

My random clicking on the 8-K list only turned up companies with 0-5% of their cash with SVB

Someone link a “we’re fucked” one

too many. Go to make it a drinking game. "I bet Kintara Therapeutics, Inc. has more than 0.5% of their cash in SVB" "I bet more than 2%" "Liar!"

Practically all the founders I know have frozen accounts right now.

Startup princelings deserve to sweat over the weekend.

lol, this includes many of of my closest friends, but yes

They didn’t have to use the bank with “Silicon Valley” in the name

eh, I’m a USAA member so I can’t talk

My credit union technically has “Boeing” in the name but that’s mostly historical at this point

we had a 'startup credit' company approach us, with the unfortunate name of Brex. They sold themselves as an all-new credit card company just for startups (which we're not) but they're actually just Mastercards

Anyway, they're jumping in right now to extend credit to all these poor starving founders so they can afford a little soylent over the weekend

Non-military Navy Federal Credit Union members represent.

ok but the timing of their IPOs is relevant because if it hadn't happened yet then they wouldn't need to file an 8-K. that's not a list of SVB customers. it's a list of public SVB customers.

why did so many (public) biotechs in particular bank with SVB?

I don’t know why everyone doesn’t bank with a credit union, seems like a no-brainer

― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, March 10, 2023 1:58 PM (five hours ago)

credit unions are insured via a different acronym ... I actually don't know much about credit union insurance. Some of them are super cool and will refund customers the "foreign" ATM fees if you take cash out of an ATM that isn't for your bank. SF Fire CU does that.

One of the things that the very large omnipresent banks that have their dumb big bank names on everything have going for them is very responsive Fraud departments ... at least the dumb big bank I have my checking account and credit cards with.

I instinctively don't trust "mark to market" because I feel like it's a rationale for making up numbers and claiming that's the market value ... but maybe that's holdover from the mortgage crisis and my instincts are wrong here

mark to market is good when the market is going up and bad when the market is going down, is how i break it down to an extent

it sounds right its a nice phrase

i still think it's a sketchy ass accounting method

i don't hate it as much as the Trump tax plan concept of being able to expense an entire building in the year purchased ... it was a small victory when that didn't get passed.

lol remember crypto

Silicon Valley Bank collapse causes crypto contagion concerns

March 10, 2023https://t.co/ZSM3G2FJ35 pic.twitter.com/QWxz6PCWKZ

— web3 is going just great (@web3isgreat) March 10, 2023

https://t.co/uJghPrxQ4k

— web3 is going just great (@web3isgreat) March 11, 2023

https://twitter.com/web3isgreat/status/1634398599944470528

Per Circle: $3.3 billion, or about one third of USDC's $9.88 billion cash reserves, are with Silicon Valley Bank. https://t.co/i6p2HJdvw1 pic.twitter.com/Qvd7EzmjCC

— web3 is going just great (@web3isgreat) March 11, 2023

lol remember crypto

who could forget this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVQd6ykDL-Q

Personally if I needed to keep $3 billion somewhere I’m not sure if I would feel so good about keeping it in cash!

lol that commercial i like how its all mountain climbers astronauts and then two people about to make out at the club

that’s the crypto life baby it’s how we’re all living

sailing around the world in an old timey ship, ehh
freezing up on some big mountain, idk
taking drug in the club with some hot girl, ok yes sold how do i buy the computer money

usdc breaking the buck is… not… good…

tether when???

not good ...for whom?

https://ir.firstrepublic.com/static-files/295faa27-f208-4936-81ff-6c8bfa0fb6b5

🤔

Scoop: Vox Media has a substantial portion of its cash at Silicon Valley Bank. The media angle, w/@eringriffith:https://t.co/md8gNCxkwH pic.twitter.com/sZaJod6jmY

— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) March 11, 2023

Exciting week ahead for a bunch of FDIC employees tho huh

Gift link to new NY Times story, including that Vox Media info above and a dozen or two more anecdotes.