A normal payday turned into chaos. No employees received direct deposits because SVB’s closure froze all of the company’s transactions. Like thousands of other small business operators, Robert and the ownership scrambled to track down the disruption and start wiring emergency payments to staff who were at risk of overdrawing their accounts. And the business itself paid several employees twice, reducing cash reserves and forcing the company’s payroll system to do backflips to get everything straightened out.

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank was a symptom of the uninterrupted market leeway the tech industry has enjoyed for the past 25 years. While virtually every other business focuses on long-term growth by reinvesting profits and boot-strapping, many tech companies have had the luxury of using other people’s money to never turn a profit.

Many company valuations are in the range of a couple multiples of recent gross or net revenue showings, but tech startups have routinely seen 10 times valuations despite no track record of regular profitability. That is, until they suddenly and spectacularly implode, taking hundreds or even thousands of innocent investors down with them.