The unique success enjoyed by Silicon Valley Bank was the result of a long process that began at the vision of the bank by the original three founders, Medearis, Biggerstaff, and Smith. The key to success involved convincing the regulators to establish a bank for the tech sector. Educating the regulators required ongoing efforts in the first decade and thereafter. SVB lenders, including Harry Kellogg, convinced the regulators about the efficacy of tech lending.1

Bob Medearis, Roger Smith, and Bill Biggerstaff founded Silicon Valley Bank in 1983. Smith ran the Bank as a startup business in the first decade. Subsequent CEO John Dean restructured the Bank and Ken Wilcox redirected the Bank with a central focus on exclusively serving the tech community. Greg Becker accelerated the Bank, connecting its past to the future. The bank’s assets grew at a fast pace during the pandemic. Becker tripled the size of the bank between 2019 and 2022.

Roger Smith and his bankers from Wells Fargo’s Special Industries Group brought their experience in tech lending to Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). According to Smith, Bank of America (BOA) was the first bank to take warrants for the right to purchase shares as part of the loan cost that they charged tech companies who were backed by Venture Capitalists (VCs) in Silicon Valley’s early days. After both Bank of America and Wells Fargo exited tech lending, SVB became the sought-after bank for lending to tech companies. SVB perfected its tech lending practice to startups that were VC-funded entities. This practice would later be called venture lending, venture loans, or venture debts in the United States and overseas.1

The Black Lives Matter movement and the pandemic propelled many financial institutions, including banks, to adopt Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles. Banks disclosed their metrics in various reports showing that they were somewhat implementing efforts to address ESG in their business, operations, and management.

Roger Smith and Harry Kellogg frequently remarked that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was all about relationships. The statement sounds like a cliché but until one truly absorbs its meaning it does not resonate and may soon be forgotten as relationships are challenging to understand, cultivate, and nurture strategically. Relationships with marquee VC firms and tech startups in the VC ecosystem were what set SVB apart from public venture lenders, private venture lenders, and other banks that dared to compete in venture debt lending. SVB bankers worked hard at building relationships and expanding the products and services to capture 100 percent of the VC ecosystem. The path was not always smooth, but the bankers tried; they finessed the edges and founded SVB Capital, SVB Premium Wine, and SVB Securities. Peculiarly, no bank rivalled to SVB on its path of expansion.