An ELI5 summary of how and why SVB failed, and whether there were any red flags that retail investors could have used to foresee this. What can we, as investors, learn from this incident? Spoiler alert: it would have been incredibly difficult. This article examines how, in an alternate reality, SVB may not have collapsed after all. Last week, we watched as the 16^th largest bank in the US collapsed. Up until last Friday, it was the preferred bank for startups and tech firms, worth over $200 billion and was a stock market darling (having been recommended by various “gurus” and investment subscription services) that benefited from the pandemic. Until it all came down to zero. SVB looked to be a darling stock for most Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Financial provided banking services to start-ups, who put their funds raised from private equity or venture capital firms into the bank and use it for operating expenses, payroll, etc....