The tech ecosystem is still coping after the collapse of SVB, the go-to bank for tech startups, after a whirlwind run on the bank last month. The chronology of the ordeal can be summed up as follows: rising interest rates by the Fed resulted in unrealized losses in SVB’s books; VCs, seeing this hole in the books, urged their founders to transfer their deposits from the bank; and founders, driven by the panic of potentially watching their life’s work evaporate before their eyes, rushed to pull out their money. Many of the accounts of the SVB collapse lay blame on a type of self-fulfilling hubris of the tech ecosystem. While a handful of bad actors played a role in inciting the panic-induced bank run, such accounts underestimate the complex psychology of a bank run, where participants are motivated to save themselves from being the last one holding the metaphorical “hot potato.” It’s a tragedy to the first degree, but one that we must share collectively as an industry.