December Startup Newsletter

It was great seeing so many of you at our Founder Happy Hour last week. (We’re excited to keep them going in 2024, in a new venue and with even more investor partners! Stay tuned.)

We also wanted to report back on Tech:NYC’s time at the 2023 Somos conference: Earlier this month, we teamed up with Google for Startups to invite a group of founders to join us at the conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It’s one of the can’t-miss events for government officials, industry leaders, and advocacy organizations to come together and set an agenda for supporting Latinx and Hispanic communities. (There are also a lot of fun parties.)

We also reserved some of the trip to connect with our peers at Parallel18, Puerto Rico’s own  startup innovation hub. We supported a venture summit and demo day events they were hosting the same week, where we were excited to offer their cohort honorary membership to Tech:NYC as leaders in the “sixth borough of NYC!”

You can get our full recap of the trip here, and a huge thanks to the startup founders who took meetings and led workshops with us: Splyt co-founder/CEO Luis Barrera, Carefully founder/CEO Leslie Borrell, and Mavity co-founder/CEO Tomás Uribe. And additional thanks to the member companies who sponsored our events: Google for Startups, Amazon, Airbnb, Doordash, and Lyft.

We know you’re busy sprinting to meet your EOY deadlines, and if there’s anything we can do to help, you know where to find us!

– Team Tech:NYC

PS: Our last event of the year will be a happy hour and fireside chat with Wonder founder and CEO Marc Lore. He’ll share a ton of insights on serial entrepreneurship and his success across the several e-commerce businesses he’s founded. Register to join us Dec. 12 here.

🙋 2024 MEMBER CENSUS

Tech:NYC is planning our 2024 policy agenda and want to ensure that we’re amplifying the priorities of our startup network in our conversations with elected officials next year.

To help inform our agenda, please complete the brief member survey linked below (it should only take about five minutes). The survey also helps ensure we have the most up-to-date information on your company for record-keeping purposes.

2024 Member Survey

Many thanks in advance — we look forward to being in touch with the results!

💸 2024 FUNDRAISING TRENDS TO WATCH, ACCORDING TO NEW YORK VCs

Last month, Tech:NYC hosted a briefing on the state of fundraising in New York for our startup members. We dug into the 2023 data and a few forecasts from leading NYC VCs on what to expect next year.

Thanks to Marshall Porter (AlleyCorp), Peter Boyce II (Stellation Capital), and Ryan O’Conor (Carta) for joining us. If you missed it, find a recap of the discussion here.

🚀 COMPANIES TO WATCH

For the latest edition of our Companies to Watch series, we spoke to a group of New York founders harnessing AI for social impact. Meet:

• Sunrise AI, an AI-powered credit insight provider for those underserved or excluded by traditional credit scoring agencies;

• Paces, a AI-enhanced software platform helping more climate positive projects get built;

• Revv, an AI-powered advanced driving assistance system to encourage street safety;

• Jona, a company using AI technology to make microbiome profiling easy to access, understand, and apply.

Read our full Q&As with the founders here.

💡 RECOMMENDED READS from our VC PARTNERS

• What Primary Looks for in Early Stage Go-To-Market SaaS (Primary VC)

• Podcast: New York Venture Investing at FirstMark Capital Founder Rick Heitzmann (Capital Locators)

• The Future of Software is Vertical (Harlem Capital) 

🧑‍💻 APPLY

Scale For ClimateTech (S4C), a NYSERDA-supported initiative, is seeking applications for its 2024 cohort. The program is open to climate tech innovators with solutions for decarbonization that demonstrate operational benefits to New York State. Learn more and apply by Dec. 4 here.

Company Ventures is accepting applications for Boost, a program of the Founder Fellowship. The 4-month program is open to NYC-based, first-time founders preparing to raise a pre-seed or seed round and are seeking a community of investors and other mentors. Learn more and apply by Dec. 5 here.

Newlab is accepting applications for its 2024 Founder Fellowship cohort. The program is open to NYC-based founders from underrepresented backgrounds with climate tech solutions. Learn more and apply by Dec. 5 here.

The New York Fashion Tech Lab is accepting applications for its 2024 cohort. The program is open to women-led, early to growth-stage emerging tech companies that have developed B2B innovations at the intersection of fashion, retail, and technology. Learn more and apply by Dec. 14 here.

🗽 ATTEND

• December 4: In-person: Data Driven NYC, featuring Adobe chief strategy officer Scott Belsky and ASAPP CEO Gustavo Sapoznik, as well as demos from Credal AI. Hosted by FirstMark Capital and Moody’s. Register here.

• December 6: In-person: Startup Executive Event: Pulse check on healthcare, with Primary partner Sam Toole, Primary principal Marisa Bass, Alma chief product officer Erik Lumer, and Stellar Health chief revenue officer Adam Gail. Hosted by Primary VC. Request to join here.

• December 6: Virtual: CNBC Work Summit: the Promise and Peril of AI, with Salesforce AI CEO Clara Shih, Sixth Street partner Marty Chavez, NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson, and others. Register here.

• December 8: In-person: Nonprofit TechCon, with BetaNYC executive director Noel Hidalgo, Queens Deputy Borough President Ebony Young, and others. Hosted by City & State. Use code TECH23 for 50% off tickets here.

• December 12: In-person: Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg speaker series, featuring Wonder founder and CEO Marc Lore. Hosted by Tech:NYC, Bloomberg and Cornell Tech. Register here.

• December 12: Virtual: #notapitch: Unofficial Feedback on Your Prototype/Ideas with a VC, with Brooklyn Bridge Ventures founder Charlie O’Donnell. Register here.

• December 12: Virtual: What’s Ahead for Enterprise AI in 2024, with Cloudflare chief security officer Grant Bourzikas, CodeComplete co-founder Lydia Ding, and Google Cloud chief technology officer Will Grannis. Hosted by The Information. Register here.

• December 16: In-person and virtual: BreakBeatCode Hackathon, a half-day event teaching future leaders to code, collaborate and create, by bringing together professionals in the music and tech industries, entrepreneurs, and tech coaches. Featuring guest star Supernatural, the GOAT of freestyle hip hop. Hosted by Google. Register here.