SVB Sends a Chill Through Hot SXSW

It’s been a wild few days at South by Southwest, the annual tech and arts festival in Austin. The conference is hopping again, with deep lines for many corporate events and parties. But Silicon Valley Bank’s implosion hung over the kickoff, ranging from panic on Friday as startups and investors scrambled to navigate the collapse, to relief by Sunday when regulators announced they would backstop all deposits. 

One founder of a creator economy startup I spoke to sent an email to staff after landing at SXSW, noting that the startup’s SVB corporate credit cards had been disabled, but its next payroll was still on track. (You can read more of The Information’s coverage about SVB here.)