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Silicon Valley Bank: An essential (and existential) lesson in startup finance
It’s been a month since the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse threatened the financial future of almost half the venture-backed startups in the United States. A lifetime of lessons in financial management has been crammed into those intervening weeks. I’ve lent an ear to more than a dozen founders in the past month, who shared horror stories of missed payrolls, emergency board meetings and blocks-long lines to apply for accounts at other banks. I’ve smiled at revelations about emergency relief funds for climate tech firms assembled in hours, such as the one pulled together by financing company Enduring Planet with backing from philanthropic organizations such as Prime Coalition, which supports…


