Alexander Torrenegra Lost Much of His Savings Due to Silicon Valey Bank Shutdown: It Was the Gross Nightmare He Lived

He Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed and regulators UNITED STATES they shut down the entity and took control of their customers’ deposits. The collapse occurred after an unsuccessful attempt to recapitalize the bank which specializes in financing the technology sector and its fall drags the papers of other financial stocks.

Of course, after finding out what was going on, customers tried to remove the money of the bank based in California, USA).

One of them was the businessman Alexander Torrenegracredited for being one of the show’s sharks shark tankbut through Twitter He said he had lost much of his savings.

In chronological order, he said that Bank of Silicon Valley it was the primary bank for two of his businesses, Personal Savings and Mortgage.

According to, between 2013 and 2023 everything was fineuntil what happened on March 9, 2023.

Then, he recounted the raw details of his despair as follows:

– Thursday, March 9:

09:00: When talking to over 200 tech founders (mostly in the Bay Area), questions about SVB start to pop up.

10:00 a.m.: Some suggest withdrawing money from SVB for security reasons. Only the other way around. No downside.

10:50 a.m.: I read the messages during a toilet break. I immediately cancel the meeting I had. I ask my wife, Tania, to transfer all our personal money to other banks. I call my teams. I ask you to do the same. One of them, at the dentist, has to stop the procedure and run home.

11:15:.: We cannot withdraw money from either account. For our personal savings, we have no other bank accounts available. For one of the companies, the authorizations are not in place to allow such a large outflow of money. We can only get half the money. We transfer it to Ameritrade, since we don’t have another bank account set up. For the second company, the bank identifiers have been modified. I can’t log in.

11:15 a.m.: Tania contacts another bank with whom we were already talking, UBS. We ask you to quickly open a bank account.

11:20 a.m.: I change the permissions for the first company. We request another transfer to Ameritrade for the remaining money of this company. You have to wait for the cables to come out.

11:25 a.m.: After a long wait, I contact an SVB agent. They reset my credentials for the second company.

12:00 p.m.: All of my conversations with tech founders in the United States know what’s going on. Obviously, we have a second round. Surrealist.

12:30 p.m.: We are asking for two transfers for all the money from the second company to Mercury.

12:38 p.m.: Electronic transfers to Ameritrade erased. The first company is safe.

12:45 p.m.: We signed dozens of documents – without reading them – and completed the opening of a personal bank account with UBS.

12:50 p.m.: Tanya’s Requests SVBthrough their website, to transfer all of our personal savings to UBS. Given the permission settings set, they tell us that they have to call us.

1:30 p.m.: SVB it is a solid bench. I know your CEO, Greg Becker. Good boy. I imagine this is a temporary issue caused mostly by people panicking. They will recover. I buy SVB shares at what I consider to be very low prices.

2:09 p.m.: One of the cables from the other company is erased.

15:00: My conversations with Latin American tech founders are starting to catch up.

4:05 p.m.: SVB calls us. It tells us that our savings will be withdrawn the same day, as requested.

4:10 p.m. m: We took a plane back to San Francisco.

11:50 p.m.: we have landed We learn that the second cable for the second company has not yet been cleared. Worse, the transfer to draw our personal savings from SVB is still in the queue.

02:00: We go to bed.

– Friday, March 10

07:00: We wake up. Nothing. SVB shares fell 60% overnight.

7:30 a.m.: We cancel all morning meetings to focus on the problem.

8:00 a.m.: We know that the SVB is now controlled by the government. The stocks I bought the day before are probably worth nothing. I made a mistake.

09:00: I organized a town hall with my team. We explain what is happening. We answer questions.

All day: Wait and face the anxiety. Help other entrepreneurs. Share what we know. Respond to investor questions.

4:00 p.m.: I calculated that the money for the company with the pending transfer is safe. It will be available from Monday. Unfortunately, for our personal savings, only a part is safe. We can recover most of the money. However, the percentage remains unclear. It can take years.

5:00 p.m.: Play with the children. They help me forget the material world.

The night: I’m thinking. “I was wrong?”. “Am I good enough to do what I do? I kiss Tanya.

– Saturday March 11:

I think there is nothing worthwhile focusing on the subject. It is an externality. We shouldn’t spend too much time thinking about it. Or try to predict the markets. It’s time to get back to what we can control: running our businesses.

I keep moving forward. Persist. Persist. Persist.

Torrenegra published their experience on March 11. However, UNITED STATES announced on March 12 that it would fully protect customers from the collapse Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

The goal is to “ensure public confidence in the U.S. banking system,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a joint statement also signed by FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg and Federal Reserve Chairman of the FDIC, Jerome Powell. “Depositors will have access to all their money from Monday, March 13”, is indicated in the text.