SVB Saga Shows Cracks in Procurement System: Alexander Harstrick

The intense focus on Silicon Valley Bank’s demise and resurrection over the last two weeks has focused almost entirely on the impact to startups and investors, but another important stakeholder has been damaged—the US government and every American.

About 50% of the venture-capital backed ecosystem banked with SVB, and directional estimates suggest that same number applies to the startups that sought to contract with the government. These numbers rise meaningfully when the other banks currently in focus are added.

So what does the collapse of America’s most startup friendly bank mean for roughly 600,000 small government contractors that compete for ...