> You said you were "advised to adjust" your account. Again, I apologize if I come across as ignorant, but what kind of adjustments?
A few months ago, a teller offered to move my savings account to a higher interest version. I just had to maintain a minimum balance. A similar thing happened when I had my first summer job before college: A teller offered me a higher-interest money market account, it was just limited to something like 4 withdrawals a month.
> Do you have an examples of any of those categories?
I'm not an expert in startup finance, but I'll try my best.
The mistake that Mitchell made was kind of like keeping all your liquid assets in a checking account. Imagine if, instead of investing in a 401k (or similar,) retail investments, CDs, savings accounts, ect; you just put your entire life savings in a single checking account. Not only would you sacrifice a massive amount of interest, you would probably lose FDIC protection as your account grew, you'd be at risk of someone forging checks, and you'd be at risk of debit card fraud.
Startups often talk about their "runway." This is how long the startup can pay their employees, rent, and other bills; if they have no income. Don't quote me, but this is usually something like (roughly) 2-5 years.
Now, keeping the "runway" money in a single account is kind of, to put it bluntly, dumb. (It's like if you kept all your liquid assets in a single checking account.) Most of it should go to low-risk investments, like CDs and other high-interest savings accounts. I'm sure Silicon Valley Bank has a very straightforward way (for startups) to do this, that Chase doesn't have.
> What would I want from a bank account as a tech startup, versus a non-tech startup, versus a restaurant, that the bank wouldn't already give me when I sign up for a normal business account?
Remember the term "runway." Restaurants are typically profitable from day one, or become profitable quickly. They spend roughly as much as they take in. Startups often run at a loss for many years before they become profitable.
Likewise, a restaurant might have to pay back a loan that it used to buy equipment, renovate, or purchase the business. Startups hold onto their investment as "runway" instead of paying back a loan.
I'm going to assume that Silicon Valley Bank has products built around the fact that a startup has a large sum of money that it spends very slowly, versus a restaurant that needs loans and spends money as quickly as it comes in.