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Silicon Valley Bank is the worst bank I've ever used and we deeply regret ever choosing them. The archaic tech, few physical branches, limited hours, expensive

Silicon Valley Bank is the worst bank I've ever used and we deeply regret ever choosing them. The archaic tech, few physical branches, limited hours, expensive services, and little unique offering other than venture debt makes it a poor choice for the majority of startups. There is nothing "Silicon Valley" about SVB other than their staff salaries being the highest of any public bank.

snazz 7y ago
I wonder why Stripe Atlas chose to partner with them for the banking part of their service. It doesn't seem like SVB aligns with Stripe's ethos.
- manigandham 7y ago
  Probably because of the same unfounded hype that other startups choose them for, but Stripe Atlas now offers better alternatives with Azlo [1] and Mercury [2], although you can still choose SVB if you want: https://stripe.com/docs/atlas/next#bank-account https://stripe.com/docs/atlas/next#bank-account 1. https://www.azlo.com/ https://www.azlo.com/ 2. https://mercury.com/ https://mercury.com/
  - ganoushoreilly 7y ago
    I wouldn’t say Azlo is better, a I’ve had more issues with them and support than any other bank I’ve used. Everything they do goes through the larger bank, azlo is more like a shiny wrapper on bva.
- adrr 7y ago
  Because smaller banks don't have the compliance team or technology to allow other companies to manage accounts. There's only a few banks that do this. All the challenger banks mainly use the same banks. The core bank systems don't support multi-tenant, most were designed in 90s or 80s and sometimes 70s. The bank needs to build a middle tier to control access so accounts are separated between companies. Protocols to these systems are terrible, its pretty much a terminal and you are reading columns and line positions to get data. SVB i think actually runs a pretty modern core bank system that has "modern" API, probably soap.
  - manigandham 7y ago
    Why does any of that matter here? Atlas just sends an application to the bank on your behalf. It doesn’t manage anything.

snazz 7y ago

I wonder why Stripe Atlas chose to partner with them for the banking part of their service. It doesn't seem like SVB aligns with Stripe's ethos.

manigandham 7y ago
Probably because of the same unfounded hype that other startups choose them for, but Stripe Atlas now offers better alternatives with Azlo [1] and Mercury [2], although you can still choose SVB if you want: https://stripe.com/docs/atlas/next#bank-account https://stripe.com/docs/atlas/next#bank-account 1. https://www.azlo.com/ https://www.azlo.com/ 2. https://mercury.com/ https://mercury.com/
- ganoushoreilly 7y ago
  I wouldn’t say Azlo is better, a I’ve had more issues with them and support than any other bank I’ve used. Everything they do goes through the larger bank, azlo is more like a shiny wrapper on bva.
adrr 7y ago
Because smaller banks don't have the compliance team or technology to allow other companies to manage accounts. There's only a few banks that do this. All the challenger banks mainly use the same banks. The core bank systems don't support multi-tenant, most were designed in 90s or 80s and sometimes 70s. The bank needs to build a middle tier to control access so accounts are separated between companies. Protocols to these systems are terrible, its pretty much a terminal and you are reading columns and line positions to get data. SVB i think actually runs a pretty modern core bank system that has "modern" API, probably soap.
- manigandham 7y ago
  Why does any of that matter here? Atlas just sends an application to the bank on your behalf. It doesn’t manage anything.