Well, hello! I’m usually in our members’ inboxes to report the daily news, but today I have the pleasure of steering the helm of our Sunday Briefing. Kate is covering SXSW in Austin and it’s quite the time to gather among the world’s tech entrepreneurs and investors, to say the least.

The unofficial American startup bank of choice, Silicon Valley Bank, collapsed on Friday, and it’s sent the tech industry into a tailspin. It’s notably the largest bank fallout since Washington Mutual and investment banks Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns fell in 2008. Startups’ payrolls are in jeopardy and investors’ funds are at risk, but the steak dinners at SXSW were already paid for, I guess?

While SVB has (had?) a Vancouver office, it only provided venture debt rather than banking services. However, there are second-hand impacts that could surface. For example, local tech companies that either used SVB as their bank of choice when in the U.S or received funding from American investors who banked with SVB could be in a precarious situation. If this sounds like something you’re navigating, give me a shout at allison@vantechjournal.com.

Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 1,133 words: a four-minute read.

-Allison, @allisongacad

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