Jonathan Nelson had lined up commitments for $2 million in new funding for his financial technology start-up, HF.Capital, from two investors last month. He was aiming for $2.5 million and thought securing the rest would be “perfunctory.”Then 67 investors turned him down. In mid-March, his initial investors backed out, too.Mr. Nelson was initially confused by the cold shoulder. But two days later, when Silicon Valley Bank, the most prominent bank for start-ups and venture capital firms, collapsed after tech investors and start-ups set off a bank run, it all made sense.“I was scratching my head, saying, ‘Why did they just ghost?’” he said. “Then the bank run happened, and I was like, ‘Ah, they’re terrified.’”The same realization is rippling through the start-up world in the wake of SVB’s sudden failure. After a harrowing 2022, when the easy money for start-ups dried up, …
