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Brett Hellman, founder of MatterApp, hurriedly fled Silicon Valley Bank on Thursday during the bank run, to protect his seed-stage company's assets.

But this week, he convinced his board to let him move $250,000 back into his SVB account. And in the long run, he says he'd consider moving back more. The reason: SVB has been good to Hellman.

"I took a mortgage out with SVB when my startup was pre-revenue. Would Bank of America have let me do that? I don't think so," said Hellman, who started banking with SVB in 2010.

Some early-stage founders haven't yet written off SVB, despite its worst week ever, out of a similar sense of loyalty. SVB's customer support was designed for and catered to the startup market, qualities that entrepreneurs are finding they can't get elsewhere.

"There were large teams of people whose sole jobs it was to find, court and entertain founders as a banking partner. You don't get that client attention at a larger institution," said Dylan Itzikowitz, an investor at startup studio and VC firm Expa.

Alex Furman, co-founder of HR tech startup Performica, is also considering moving some of his company's cash back. "The SVB teams we dealt with were consistently top notch, and none of this is their fault," Furman said. "I'm on a bit of an empathy crusade with this whole thing."

For now, VCs are encouraging diversification of capital, and a more healthy skepticism toward any one lender is a likely outcome of the SVB crisis. But as SVB lifts its head above the water, seed-stage companies are paying attention.

The rush of startups looking for a new bank has created a seller's market, where larger banking institutions are taking longer to accept or, in a few cases, even turning away some corporate applicants with less than $10 million in their account balance, according to three VCs with early-stage portfolios.

"Some banks are being very aggressive with your minimum account deposits. I've heard $10 million from a couple of very well-known systemically important banks [SIBs]. There's definitely prioritization going on by many banks," said Nuno Gonçalves Pedro, managing partner at seed VC firm Chamaeleon. Gonçalves Pedro said he's heard that even a few VCs are being turned away if their assets under management are too low.

"There's a lot of using your connections to get a bank account now — who do you know that can help you, that can waive the minimum?" Gonçalves Pedro said. 

"JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, they're generally built for companies that have north of $20 million in the bank, not for companies that have $500,000 to a couple million," Itzikowitz said. By contrast, SVB offered favorable interest rates on money-market accounts to even seed-stage clients.

Companies that borrowed money from SVB were required to hold deposits at the bank. But many pulled those funds during the panic last week, breaching the covenant on their credit lines. Now, the bank is inviting those borrowers back, saying that they will get a waiver on the breach, according to Bardia Moayedi, a lawyer at Snell & Wilmer.

"That incentive could be strong for some founders since they now need the cash more than ever," said Yevgeny Gelfand, investor at Alumni Ventures.

Several prominent VC firms, including Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Upfront Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, signed a joint statement Tuesday that they are "recommending our portfolio companies to keep or return 50% of their total capital with SVB."

Banking giants also tend to be slower in opening new accounts, especially given the current flurry of activity. Some founders have been waiting over a week for their new account at JP Morgan to be processed, a VC told Forbes. That's where digital banks have stepped in to provide solutions faster, like Brex, Mercury and Ramp.

SVB's new CEO, Tim Mayopoulos, is encouraging depositors to return to SVB. Late Monday, he told clients, "We are conducting business as usual." 

Madeline Shi and Marina Temkin contributed reporting.

Related Read: Nonbank lenders pounce on venture debt market after SVB collapse

Featured image by Sundry Photography/Shutterstock

This article originally appeared on PitchBook News