AUSTIN, Texas — The historic Silicon Valley Bank collapse has impacted business in Austin.
A cozy office near East Fifth Street is home to premium wine startup BOXT.
"We are Austin-born, Napa-made wine," manager Veronica Morrison said. "We do all of our blending there."
Morrison is part of BOXT's all-woman team.
"Our Profile 5 we are proud of," Morrison said. "It was in Forbes for winning double gold at the San Francisco wine competition."
BOXT has been in business for about two years. But last week's historic Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) crash put the company at risk.
"You think about how much money we have and how many months can we run this business without access to capital," said Sarah Puil, BOXT CEO and founder.
While SVB is based in California, there is a branch in Austin that many local startups utilize.
"The team here in Austin are a powerful team that are at the center of our innovation hub here in Austin, and they're so important to our ecosystem," Puil said.
It's an ecosystem that could have been devastated if the federal government didn't step in. The feds are bailing out customers impacted by the SVB failure and two other bank collapses in a week's timeframe.
"We don't have all of our assets, but that's OK," Puil said. "I know what's happening. There's a lot of people that are trying to access to the bank."
That patience is what economist and UT professor John Doggett said will help keep our banking system afloat – especially now that every bank customer in the U.S. is covered if a failure happens again.
"Once people understand that, my guess is most people are going to say, 'OK, we'll see what happens with these banks, but I'm not worried anymore,'" he said.
While startups no longer fear losing their assets, they are worried about how they will continue to fund their businesses.
"The access to capital after an event like this is going to become incredibly hard," Puil said.
Puil is still figuring out if she wants to stick with SVB, but one thing is for sure: the pour isn't coming to an end.
"This has just energized us in the craziest way to say, 'Not us, not this time,'" Puil said. "We are going to press through."