The Smartest Bet In Silicon Valley
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Abstraction: Foundation Capital VC defends startup founders after Silicon Valley Bank collapse
Key points:
- Written by Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital in April 2023 following Silicon Valley Bank's collapse
- Argues founders bore the brunt of SVB's failure — many moved company bills to personal credit cards and transferred personal savings to make payroll before regulators guaranteed all deposits
- Criticizes media characterization of founders as entitled "tech bros," distinguishing them from billionaire VCs and celebrity executives
- Eight Fed rate increases raised cost of capital ~20x; S&P and crypto indices fell; IPO window frozen; late-stage private valuations down a third
- Invokes Silicon Valley's garage-origin mythology: Brin/Page at Menlo Park, Jobs/Wozniak at Los Altos, Gordon Moore at Palo Alto
- Core thesis: "Bet on founders" — the attempt to build is the spirit of Silicon Valley, not the outcomes
Connections: Silicon Valley Bank · Foundation Capital · Startup Culture · Venture Capital
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevevassallo/2023/04/05/the-smartest-bet-in-silicon-valley/