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Well, just as an example SVB gave my startup a bank account and a no personal recourse credit card days after we'd formed the corporation. No way you'd get that
by necubi 4y ago
Well, just as an example SVB gave my startup a bank account and a no personal recourse credit card days after we'd formed the corporation. No way you'd get that from BofA.
They understand the startup ecosystem in a way that big banks don't. Now there's some competition from startup-focused banks like Brex and Mercury, but a five years ago SVB was one of the only games in town.
- ericpauley 4y agoI totally get why you’d borrow from them, and the card sounds nice, but do you want to be depositing your money with businesses that offer no personal recourse credit cards to brand new businesses?
- helsontaveras18 4y agoWhat’s wrong with that? Credit cards for businesses can be very low risk with the right KYC and underwriting controls. Consider that startups are most often sitting on mountains of cash. Also, having founders personally guarantee a credit card by putting up a house as collateral is not ideal for anyone.
- object-a 4y agoFWIW, Mercury and Brex are not banks. Mercury provides services and a frontend, but their banking services are provided by Choice Financial and Evolve. Brex is also not bank. The Brex business account is an FDIC Sweep account, which constantly moves your balances across multiple banks to keep you within the FDIC limits.
- twelve40 4y agoI got a BofA checking account, credits cards and a business car loan in the first month after setting up a brand new corp with 0 assets. It's almost kind of funny how it worked exactly as you described, at BofA. P.S. which makes me wonder how much of SVB friendliness was just smart marketing. If you look up and down this thread, most of the SVB "explanations" here are strictly circular: "they are good for startups because they are good for startups", with little to none useful info.
- zht 4y agoSure and there’s also anecdotes of larger banks doing the exact opposite
- twelve40 4y agoOk, let's chalk it up to my irresistible charm when I showed up at the branch that day, I can live with that.
- zamnos 4y agoI'm guessing your corp didn't have a 1 million dollar check to deposit, with expectations that most of that would get sent out to employees and AWS/GCP over the next few years, and that you would be receiving another 10 million dollars shortly thereafter. Bragging about getting a car loan when (I assume) you have good history and credit? Unless it was a $1.5m Mclaren P1 supercar or something, that's not remotely in the same category.
- twelve40 4y agothe person i was replying to said no way a brand new corp can get an account or credit cards, they didn't say anything about millions. That directly contradicted my experience, and despite being "anecdotal", I'm sure i was subject to the same rules and equations as everyone else. If you want another anecdote - this one has millions in it - my last startup banked with Wells Fargo from pre-seed right up to series A with >10mil in three funding rounds and never had a single problem. Must be my crazy luck here as well! At any rate, SVB is dead now, so it's pointless to argue whether they were really a startup's best friend or just hyped that up. They are not anyone's friend anymore, they are dead and the only real question here is how to get the damn money back from them.
- zamnos 4y agoThis is the Wells Fargo that got in trouble for creating 2.1 million fake accounts for customers who never asked for them, got caught by the CFPB, paid $185 million in fines, and has been desperate for customers ever since? Yeah, actually, you did get lucky with them, they really do want your business.