Managing Partner Michael A. Morell had a conversation with Inc.com Senior Editor, Lindsay Blakely regarding the continued impact that the financial collapse of Lehman Brothers has had on small businesses. As an expert in industry, Michael was asked to comment on the different reasons that software engineers have been leaving Wall Street and the financial sector to pursue opportunities in the startup arena. However, the growing appeal of landing a job at hot startups like Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare and the like are only increasing the demand to secure top engineering talent.
(Inc.) – Four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, American small businesses are still dealing with the fallout. Inc.’s reporters and editors examine what’s changed.
No one thought it could happen. Those who followed Wall Street closely knew, of course, that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld had essentially been playing chicken with the bank’s future–or so it seemed. But when neither Bank of America nor Barclays purchased the firm, on September 15, 2008, Lehman was forced into what became the largest U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy ever, and the Treasury secretary refused to make a loan to keep the bank afloat.
That set off the 2008 financial crisis in earnest, leading to the Great Recession.
Few entrepreneurs, of course, had accounts with Lehman or an investment-banking relationship with the firm. But its collapse still had startling implications for them, affecting everything from their ability to access credit to their luck at hiring software developers.
Four years later, here’s how the entrepreneurial landscape has changed–all thanks to a big firm that no longer exists.