Silicon Valley Bank: The Rise and Fall of a Community Bank for Tech

This book provides a first-hand account of the founding, ascent, and dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a tech community bank founded in 1982 with US$5 million that became the nation's 13th largest bank and the tech industry's lender. It explores how the relationship between the venture capital (VC) industry and SVB transformed the way commercial banks comply with banking regulators while lending and nurturing young tech clients.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 292 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2024
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

This book offers a firsthand account of the founding, growth, and collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a tech community bank established in 1982 with $5 million in assets that grew to become the 13th-largest bank in the United States and the leading lender to the tech industry. Through extensive interviews with key figures, including the original founders and early employees, as well as the current CEO of SVB, Xuan-Thao Nguyen challenges conventional notions of risky tech lending by revealing how an independent community bank became the preferred bank for the tech industry in the United States. The book explores how the relationship between the venture capital (VC) industry and SVB reshaped the compliance practices of commercial banks when lending to and nurturing young tech clients. It demonstrates why strong relationships between investors, start-ups, bankers, lenders, experts, lawyers, regulators, and community leaders are essential for sustaining innovation in the tech industry. The book concludes with a disheartening analysis of SVB's sudden demise, brought about by $142 billion in cuts imposed by tech bros, social media, and the Federal Reserve Bank's consecutive interest rate hikes to cool down the overheated economy.

Weight: 432g
Dimension: 151 x 228 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781009416160