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CEO of San Diego startup raced to wire money before Silicon Valley Bank failure

San Diego startup CEO raced to wire money before Silicon Valley bank failure
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SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - The founder of a local start-up is recounting the harrowing moments as he tried to transfer tens of millions of dollars before the Silicon Valley Bank failure.

On Thursday afternoon, as Silicon Valley Bank tried to sell off assets to boost its balance sheet, its stock shares plummeted.

Cody Barbo, a founder of the five-year-old San Diego startup Trust & Will, which offers easy and affordable ways to create online trusts and wills, saw his Twitter timeline and got nervous. A vast majority of his company's cash is in the bank.

“A lot of the venture capitalists that I follow, a lot of the growth-stage company CEOs, all saying, ‘Get your money out of SVB.’ Spooked me in a way that I've never seen that before,” said Barbo.

Barbo conferred with company officials.

“I’m on the phone with our co-founder and CFO. They’re like, ‘Get off the phone and go wire the money,’” said Barbo.

Ahead of the cutoff time for wire transfers, Barbo, in a 3-minute span, raced to make an 8-figure transfer out of the bank.

“So stressful to wire out that much capital. Never wired out that much money in my life or my career,” said Barbo.

Barbo would learn the next morning the transfer went through. That same day, Silicon Valley Bank would fail. Barbo’s company still has a seven-figure amount still remaining in the bank.

“Put us in an uncomfortable position. So many companies didn't wire any money out. Those are the founders and CEOs I feel the most for because they were the ones telling their teams they couldn't make payroll over the weekend,” said Barbo.

Sunday delivered relief for bank customers.

The Biden administration announced it will backfill customer deposits, whatever the amount, at the bank.

“That's going to calm depositors in other institutions. I don’t think we’re going to see a run on deposits at similar banks. That will help stabilize the situation,” said USD economics professor Alan Gin.

The question now is: how quickly can customers retrieve their money?

At the bank's La Jolla branch, the newspapers are piling up outside. The branch remains closed.

“The portal is opening. Wires are just showing ‘In processing,’” said Barbo early Monday afternoon.

As of early Monday evening, Barbo tells ABC 10News he believes he was able to wire out the remaining funds but will receive confirmation Tuesday morning.