It’s been rough going for technology stocks so far this year. But talk with Greg Becker and you come away feeling upbeat.
“I’m very bullish”, he says. “When you think about the innovation and what’s going on, it’s incredibly broad-based,” he explains. “I feel good about it. That’s why we’re long on innovation.”
His enthusiasm is not surprising. After all, Becker has been the CEO running Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB) since 2011 and the bank has been the go-to lender for entrepreneurs and their start-ups since the 1980s. Tens of thousands of companies including tech All Stars like Cisco, Airbnb, Square, Pinterest, and Fitbit were bankrolled by Silicon Valley Bank. Today, the bank has a loan portfolio valued at nearly $25 billion.
What makes the Santa Clara based bank so special is not just its location in the heart of Silicon Valley, but it gets the first look at most deals. Many of those early stage companies don’t have earnings or positive cash flow, but Becker and his team of experts can still spot the winners. The bank’s longtime relationships with successful entrepreneurs, scientists and technologists are what Becker calls “the secret sauce” of Silicon Valley Bank.
Becker believes the next wave of big tech innovations will come at the intersection of digital health and machine learning. “The combination of these two things, I think is super exciting,” he says. “I think we’re going to see an incredible amount of innovation over the next five, ten, 15 years.”
Watch the video above for more from our interview with Becker.