Silicon Valley Bank: The Rise and Fall of a Community Bank for Tech

This book provides a first-hand account of the founding, ascent, and dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a tech community bank founded in 1982 with US$5 million that became the nation's 13th largest bank and tech industry's lender and bank. In this pathbreaking work, which challenges conventional understanding of risky tech lending by showing how an independent community bank became the go-to bank for the tech industry in the United States, Xuan-Thao Nguyen includes interviews with key players, ranging from the original founders and early employees to the current CEO of SVB. Chapters explore how the relationship between the venture capital (VC) industry and SVB transformed the way commercial banks comply with banking regulators while lending and nurturing young tech clients. The book demonstrates why the relationships between investors, start-ups, bankers, lenders, experts, lawyers, regulators, and community leaders are key ingredients for ongoing innovation in the tech industry. The book concludes with the sobering dissection of SVB's sudden death by $142 billion cuts inflicted by tech bros, social media, and the Federal Reserve Bank's successive interest rate hikes to squash the overheated economy.

本書提供了矽谷銀行（Silicon Valley Bank，簡稱SVB）的創立、崛起和解散的第一手資料。該科技社區銀行成立於1982年，起初只有500萬美元的資金，後來成為美國第13大銀行和科技行業的貸款和銀行服務提供者。在這本開創性的著作中，黃璇島（Xuan-Thao Nguyen）通過對關鍵人物的訪談，從創始人和早期員工到現任CEO，挑戰了對於風險科技貸款的傳統理解，展示了一家獨立的社區銀行如何成為美國科技行業的首選銀行。各章節探討了風險投資（VC）行業與SVB之間的關係如何改變商業銀行在貸款和培育年輕科技客戶方面遵守銀行監管機構的方式。本書證明了投資者、初創企業、銀行家、貸款人、專家、律師、監管機構和社區領袖之間的關係是科技行業持續創新的關鍵因素。本書最後對SVB突然倒閉的原因進行了深入剖析，包括科技公司、社交媒體和美聯儲連續加息導致經濟過熱而造成的1420億美元削減。