Finding, attracting and retaining world-class talent is increasingly difficult for many of Silicon Valley Bank’s technology and life science clients. In fact, our annual Startup Outlook survey revealed while nine in ten startup executives said they were hiring, an equal number said it is challenging – or extremely challenging – to find workers with the skills they need.

Every time I meet with a group of tech company CEOs they say the same thing: hiring world-class talent is one of their biggest challenges. They struggle to find, attract and retain the engineering, scientific and technical talent they need to grow their businesses.

So when I saw the results of our annual Startup Outlook survey this year, I was not surprised. While nine in ten startup executives said they were hiring, an equal number said it is challenging - or extremely challenging - to find workers with the skills they need.

   Silicon Valley Bank is thrilled to have hosted this amazing event! We worked with the members of the band Coverflow to create a singing contest that benefitted children’s charities, featuring some of the best amateur singers from the tech world, with tech celebrity judges including David Hornick, Dave McClure, Steven Jang and Alison Murdock.

Listen to our round table discussion of the JOBS Act and its implications for both early-stage and late-stage companies. Our panel, including Bill Hambrecht, discuss crowdfunding, the IPO on-ramp, and options for raising capital in this online webinar.

Leverage can be a powerful tool, but optimizing its application requires some calculus of cost versus benefit. Adding term debt or a revolving credit facility can lift a transaction size or working-capital liquidity beyond what precious equity capital can achieve alone. Finding that perfect, simple leverage tool is critical to a company's growth and future success. So, how can a CFO make the best decisions about debt for the business?

Read the article in CFO.com

Crisis gives birth to innovation. The proverb proves always true in the world of technology. As companies search for ways to power through the present economic downturn, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model has gained even more momentum.

Businesses in many industries and geographies have applied this service delivery model to a variety of business processes and achieved great success. By using a commercial vendor to develop the software, host its operation and provide Internet-based access and application support to customers, companies are able to reduce the cost of procuring and maintaining enterprise software applications.

The economic recession and financial crisis have cast a dark cloud over most of the venture capital industry. The popular press continues to report bad news: poor exit markets, reduced venture investment and employee layoffs at technology firms. Despite these glum reports, innovative technologies are still being developed and many promising venture-backed companies are maintaining revenue growth. One example is companies developing the software-as-a-service model, the technology more commonly known as “SaaS.” As a provider of banking services to SaaS technology companies and as a consumer of SaaS offerings, SVB has observed SaaS as one of the bright spots in the venture capital industry. We expect that SaaS innovation will expand during the economic recession and SaaS technology will become a mainstay of enterprise computing.