Founders fund pulls money before SVB collapses | Hacker News Reader

Founders fund pulls money before SVB collapses

bloomberg.com

59 pointsboringg28 comments

Must be nice to have access to the kind of info where you can act before others.

In this case the fact that you're going to act might be the "info"

SVB announcing their equity raise was public info.

“But the firm learned that its limited partners were encountering issues using SVB services as they tried to transfer the funds”

This though was not in Thursday.

It's only `insider trading` if you're NOT in congress =P

From the article:

>> But the firm learned that its limited partners were encountering issues using SVB services as they tried to transfer the funds — they weren’t immediately going through as expected, the person said. Quickly, Founders Fund asked its investors to transfer the money to other banks instead. The fund acted to ensure that startup funding deals that were slated to close in the coming days were not delayed, the person said.

Having issues with SVB services seems like a legitimate source of info.

What do you expect on their official statement? "ahh we got a call from the CEO saying they were probably going to collapse in a few months, so we got our money out". I get it's unprovable/conspiracy stuff, but to think that doesn't happen at the top end is simply naive.

On the All-In podcasts, David Sacks discussed how he noticed something off with SVB that lead him to move his accounts. They all seemed to agree SVB did nothing illegal or wrong. It doesn't appear to be an Enron or Bernie Madoff situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEee7dAk25c

I love the part about the tech industry having a "moral imperative".

I genuinely cannot tell any more if "tech" is as fart-sniffingly high on their own supply as they look, or if it's an act to sucker in more money. Or if there's even a difference.

It's fake it [1] till you make it.

[1] that the farts smell good.

https://archive.ph/0ZIu7

The title makes you think Thiel provoked a bank run. But the content shows they found issues with SVB when doing transfers while on regular business operations.

No insider info. No conspiracy. But Bloomberg got the catchy headline and people love to hate on Thiel.

"Fun factoid" The CEO of SVB used to be CFO of Lehman I guess that explains a lot ...

Oof imagine having that legacy

Do you mean CAO of SVB?

You are right Chief Administrative Officer

Before triggering a bank run, make sure to save yourself first and by the time you've done that, announce to your portfolio companies to move their funds when you already know they are too late to save themselves.

It's almost as if this was an exit scam and someone knew that the bank with the VC pyramid scheme was going to collapse, very quickly.

Bank run was triggered by extremely poor investment decisions of SVB and not by people acting on that public information.

Given the economic factors + SVB's deposit base, what should they have done differently?

bought bonds with 1y maturity and not 10y

Or simply laddered their maturities to blend a lower average duration.

Pretty crazy that the GIC savings strategy we teach kids in junior high might have mitigated this.

I mean if I knew interest rates were gonna go high all the way back in 2021, then why didn’t SVB?

Oh right cause they didn’t have a CRO.

They bought one of the worst assets you could’ve in that time frame. MBSes with barely any interest and long maturity times.

It looks like they were in the middle of a capital call - completely caught unaware.

Triggering a bank run where your startups get all their money out before their competitors is a nice way to get an edge

Inciting a bank run is illegal (edit: only if done with false statements so may not apply), I wonder if coordinating one through multiple investments that are supposed to act as independent entities is too?

> Inciting a bank run is illegal

Under what law?

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