YC has taken significant positions in their portfolio companies, which they rightfully boast are worth something like a collective $140B. They've also strongly encouraged their portfolio founders to use SVB, which made sense until the precise moment it didn't.
What I don't understand is why YC itself doesn't allocate what appears to be a painful but survivable amount of its profits and bail out its own portfolio companies.
This would cost a few billion dollars... but they have it. Indeed, a notable number of individuals closely associated with YC could do it without breaking a sweat. Indeed, there's a strong argument to be made that this would be an excellent investment in their future hero/GOAT status, never mind ensuring that their beloved startup ecosystem continues to return huge profits long into the future.
I don't share the reductive views expressed in the comments. I strongly empathize with the founders and their employees who are not investors but depositors in a bank that they were told to use. The notion that startup founders could or should maintain a bank relationship for every $250k of operating capital isn't practical or helpful.
However, I don't think that going to the US citizens is a good look, either. This petition's core ask frames it as a binary choice when the third option is that YC itself should 100% step up and take this hit.