Startups Withdraw Applications for Government Loans, Fearing Backlash

One week after submitting paperwork for a $2 million government loan from the Small Business administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades asked his bank to withdraw the application. He worried taking the money was ethically dubious and legally risky.

“CEOs are having trouble sleeping thinking their company might get it and 50 restaurants might not,” said Georgiades, who co-founded the San Francisco–based apartment rental marketplace Zumper in 2012. “A venture-backed startup taking it really would come at the expense of Main Street.”