When real-estate-startup cofounder Vai Gupta visited downtown San Francisco from the suburbs last year, he borrowed a conference room at a branch of Silicon Valley Bank to host a quick business meeting, just like he has several times over the past decade. Gupta also has leaned on the bank for networking events, financial tutorials, and discount codes for business software and services. Other banks offer competing perks, but SVB's total package had won Gupta's loyalty, until the tech-focused financial giant cratered last week. Now Gupta is among thousands of customers wondering whether they will ever again find a financial institution that offers the unique blend of benefits, savvy, and speed that SVB delivered to entrepreneurs. Founded about 40 years ago by a Stanford University professor who teamed with banking experts after noticing students struggling to fund business ideas, Silicon Valley Bank treated startup founders like royalty long before their companies ever generated a...
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