Small business owner with capital in SVB on collapse and impact
BOXT founder and CEO Sarah Puil says small businesses needed banks like Silicon Valley Bank and hopes the bigger banks will power innovation like SVB did.
A small business owner, who kept cash in Silicon Valley Bank, is opening up about moving forward given the "incredibly hard environment."
"I was in my Silicon Valley hat listening to the news, getting texts from my colleagues and my fellow entrepreneurs and it felt a little bit surreal like 'What are you talking about? What's happening? What does this mean?'," BOXT founder and CEO Sarah Puil told "Your World" on Monday.
"Then, you know, within hours you're seeing some of the biggest VCs on the planet saying, 'Pull your money out’ and it was like, ‘Wait, what is happening right now?’"
The winery owner, who spends her days surrounded by her team selling products, says everyone was forced to learn something brand new amid the collapse.
"Time is of the essence and there was no time," she told Fox News.
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A customer stands outside of a shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. Silicon Valley Bank was shut down on Friday morning by California regulators and was put in control of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Puil explained the Silicon Valley Bank team, which are "incredible partners to entrepreneurs," gave the company venture debt.
"They take risk alongside our investors since we're a super early-stage startup to give us access to capital that the big guys won't give us."
Now, Puil says the pathway out of her situation is paved by focusing on selling more wine and raising more money for the company.
"We're going to focus on...selling our product and getting our product in the hands of consumers," she said. "That's the goal. That's the way out of this."
The winery owner will be "cautious" with where she puts her money in the future.
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"As a venture-backed startup and small business, we need partners like Silicon Valley Bank," she said. "We need the big guys to actually be willing to help power small business and innovation across this country in the way that SVB had been doing it because, you know, I took a career shift at 40. I'm 44-years-old... The idea of putting my house up as collateral is a little bit...scary, but that's where we are and if that's what we're going to do, I mean, we're all in."
"I'm a steward of other people's money who have trusted me with their capital and I'm going to do what it takes to survive," she said. "That's what I'm going to do."
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