Life comes at your fast

Just a little over 24 hours ago I was writing about how I was hoping the SVB situation would work out and that I was hoping it was an overblown overreaction.

Turns out that overreaction turned into more panic and the whole situation became a death spiral. It’s a sad day for tech and the entire startup ecosystem. SVB has been supporting startups, tech, and investors for almost 40 years. To see this happen is a sad realization of the day and age we’re living in.

Don’t get me wrong here though. SVB made a lot of critical mistakes starting with mismanaging their risk profile of their assets. They got greedy during 2021 like so many in this industry, and sought out higher yields for bigger profits.

Largely though, I can’t help but think that this situation could have all been avoided if everyone stayed calm. Instead, we had a lot of people inciting panic in the situation and caused a bank run that sent SVB spiraling.

This could have been avoided at multiple points including SVB properly managing their risk. I don’t know how this will all shake out. I’m hoping that it gets settled quickly and we had a bigger institution saving SVB and the depositors. The rippling effects otherwise are going to be ugly and beyond things we’ve seen since the GFC.

For now, I’m going to take my mind off everything and try to tune out as much as I can over the weekend. I can use a hug, a break, and many drinks.