All autopsies

// STARTUP COMPARISON

Reworth vs Silicon Valley Bank

Reworth failed in 2022 due to Founder Chaos. Silicon Valley Bank failed in 2023 due to Unit Economics. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.

METRIC🔥 Reworth🔥 Silicon Valley Bank
SectorFintechFintech
CountryColombiaUSA
Founded20181983
Died20222023
Raised$5MPublic company (SIVB)
Peak200 enterprise clients$209B assets
Primary CauseFounder ChaosUnit Economics

// WHY EACH FAILED

🔥 Reworth
Founder Chaos
Reworth built an employee benefits and financial wellness platform for Colombian enterprises, reaching 200 corporate clients. A co-founder dispute in 2021 led to the departure of the founding CTO — the technical co-founder who had built all enterprise integrations. Without the CTO, product development stalled, integration maintenance fell behind, and enterprise clients began churning. The company could not rebuild technical capacity and shut down in 2022.
// LESSON
In enterprise B2B, the CTO's institutional knowledge of client integrations is a critical single point of failure. Document integrations obsessively, cross-train teams, and resolve co-founder disputes before they become irreconcilable.
🔥 Silicon Valley Bank
Unit Economics
Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March 2023 after a bank run driven by duration mismatch. SVB had invested deposits in long-duration bonds during low-rate periods. When rates rose, those bonds lost value. SVB announced a $1.8B loss on bond sales and a capital raise — triggering a $42B bank run in 24 hours. The FDIC seized SVB on March 10, 2023 — the second-largest bank failure in US history.
// LESSON
Asset-liability duration matching is not optional for banks. Investing short-term deposits in long-term bonds is a structural bet against rising rates. SVB had $80B in long-duration bonds when the Fed began the fastest rate rise cycle in 40 years.

// IN THE SIMULATION

Reworth triggers CTO_DEPARTURE_ENTERPRISE — the simulation models CTO exits in enterprise B2B companies as having 2x the damage of CTO exits in consumer companies. Enterprise integrations require institutional technical knowledge that cannot be quickly replaced.

SVB triggers DURATION_MISMATCH_BANK_RUN — the simulation models banks with long-duration bond portfolios as having existential rate sensitivity. A 400bps rate rise on a long-duration portfolio creates mark-to-market losses that exceed capital when forced to sell.

// EXPLORE FURTHER