Gupta, the real estate entrepreneur, is already missing SVB. He wires money internationally at least a couple of times a month for his startup BonfireDAO, which aims to lower barriers to buying properties using blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies. He estimates that Chase, his new bank, will charge him $5,000 a year for the transfers, which SVB provided for free.

SVB also offered customers freebies through a dedicated section in its mobile app long before other banks dangled similar discounts to startups, says Gupta, who from SVB has taken advantage of Amazon Web Services cloud computing credits and free DocuSign e-signature services. He attended over a dozen SVB events, including sessions on finding cofounders and pitching investors. The bank would also let him stop by for a free lunch or to use a meeting room during business trips. “They were very hospitable,” Gupta says. He says he might now have to shell out for a WeWork membership.

Entrepreneur Adam Zbar has enjoyed the use of an SVB ski house with a dock on California’s Lake Tahoe. As CEO of meal delivery company Sunbasket, he would use it to host weeklong retreats for his management team. The bank would bring in a top chef for a night and exclusive wines from SVB’s winery clients. “It was phenomenal,” Zbar says.

SVB sponsorships also helped pay for trips for Los Angeles tech entrepreneurs to ski at Mammoth Mountain in California and surf at a human-made ranch constructed amid farms, says Zach James, co-CEO of ad tech company Zefr. SVB would take clients to race fancy cars, go backstage at music festivals, and meet vintners at private sessions at Napa Valley wineries to the point that it hosted 300 wine-related events one year.

Rivals had ramped up. JPMorgan Chase announced hiring several top bankers from SVB over the past few years. First Republic Bank was making progress adding tech clients. But their main focus remained elsewhere. 

Law firms and recruiting and consulting companies are also major sponsors of tech industry schmoozing, though none of them—and certainly no other bank—came close to matching SVB’s largesse toward companies far away from listing on Wall Street, the entrepreneurs and several investors say. “They were one of the key underwriters of the community,” says Paige Craig, who has been a customer of the bank as an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. “It’s a big hole to fill.”

For all the fancy perks, the ease of borrowing money from SVB has been the biggest draw for many companies. Startups take out bank loans to diversify their financing, and they often can secure the dollars without giving up as many shares as they have to provide venture investors.

Zefr’s James has taken out loans for his company several times through SVB after shopping around. In some cases, the bank takes a small ownership stake in the borrowers. Other times it defers principal payments for a year or two or allows for repayment in a single lump sum. “It was the catch-all for startups,” James says of SVB.