Panic and partying reign at SXSW amid SVB’s collapse
Less than 24 hours before its collapse, Silicon Valley Bank, known throughout the tech industry as SVB, hosted a private dinner for a couple dozen people at Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille in downtown Austin, a short walk from the convention center that hosts South by Southwest. Jake Chapman, a partner at the defense investment firm Marque Ventures, said he ordered the house specialty pork chop.
“I was expecting that the SVB folks would address the elephant in the room,” Chapman said. “But nobody said a thing about it.”
The next day, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took control of SVB, plunging the tech and startup world into the most systemic crisis since the bursting of the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. Chapman said the bank’s demise and uncertain future were top of mind.
“Every conversation starts with the SVB topic,” he said.
Silicon Valley Bank did not respond to a request for comment.