COLUMBUS, Ohio — A central Ohio entrepreneur wants the world to know the Silicon Valley Bank collapse doesn’t just impact the one percent of the tech-elite, but small businesses in Columbus.
Lindsey Michaelides said her tech company, Strongsuit Co. depends on SBV for their day to day operations. Just last year she raised over $3 million in her last round of funding, but says Friday’s announcement of the collapse stopped her in her tracks.
“I think it's really easy to think that the impact stops there. But in this case, you know, it's so wide ranging, it was it was set to impact families all across the country. And I think our team is just one good example of what that might look like,” Michaelides said.
Michaelides left her job in 2018 with an idea and a mission to alleviate the mental load off working parents so they can be more present with the jobs and their families. She took $10,000 and built her company, using AI technology to help families and businesses. It quickly grew and business has been booming ever since.
"Just earlier that week, I had deposited one of the biggest checks that we've ever received from from a customer from a business that we're working with,” Michaelides said.
With the last round of funding, Michaelides said she was excited to keep expanding the company.
“That was really meant to propel our growth forward and that we were really excited to use to hire more folks, ideally in Ohio,” Michaelides said, who primarily used SVB accounts to handle all operations.
“We use those accounts to pay our team to pay, you know, vendors and freelancers that we work with, really to, you know, we used it to house all of the operating capital that we use to run our business,” Michaelides said.
On Thursday she started hearing word that something was going on with SVB, so she quickly wire transferred the majority of the company’s funds to a separate bank, leaving just $250,000. Friday morning, she said, the transfer never went through.
"For me, it was 14 people's livelihoods that were at stake that that weighed very heavily on me," Michaelides said.
Michaelides ran through all the possibilities to stay afloat. The company never took out any loans or had any debt, so that could be a potential option. The second option she says, was to turn to her investors, but that can create complications.
“Frankly, the numbers that I was running was to, you know, figure out like, okay, depending on what the worst case scenario is, how bad is that? And if it's bad enough to does that mean, we close up shop?’ Michaelides said.
Late Monday afternoon, she says help from the government arrived, and she was able to pay her employees.
“I'm so grateful that that the government did act swiftly and was able to come to a resolution that that serve the needs of depositors, and did not impact taxpayers at all,” shares Michaelides.
However, she says the company is now working quickly to move her company’s funding. Her biggest takeaway she says, is being very careful with partners moving forward with her early stage company, who’s desire is to continue to grow and thrive.