Startup Newsletter: May 2023

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Can you believe we’re already approaching the end of Q2?This quarter, we’ve been laser-focused on building more ways for our startup members (you!) to engage with the broader ecosystem — this month alone, we invited a group of founders up to Albany for a day of meetings with local elected officials; we hosted the latest installment of our founder happy hour in residence at Pubkey; and we held a half-day forum with Mayor Eric Adams to demonstrate how emerging technologies can help protect NYC’s critical infrastructure.Outside of our own events, we can’t help but notice that a wave of meetups and other events are back in full force, and the energy across the New York tech community is as strong as ever. Everyone wants to be here! There’s actually data to back that up: New insights from Carta (another Tech:NYC member!) found that for the first time ever, New York leads the country in the volume of seed and Series A rounds — yes, even more than San Francisco. From our point of view, “New York tech” builds its identity less as a single hub; rather, we’re a network of nodes making connections across downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City, and many other neighborhoods leading incredible sector growth all their own. It’s an advantage that’s uniquely New York — and it’s why New York tech is winning.Do you have an event, a funding announcement, or another piece of news we can help amplify? Keep us updated!Wishing you a relaxing, safe holiday weekend! – Team Tech:NYC 🗽Bonus resource: The WFH (or Anywhere) Guide to NYC, from our friends at Justworks

We can scribble an endless list of ways COVID-19 upended daily life in New York, but there are at least two

silver linings

: it incentivized more mental health providers to spin up digital-first services and it broke down the stigmas attached to talking about mental health challenges. (And for those reasons, mental health startups

continue to attract investor interest

.)

To close out Mental Health Awareness Month, we talked to a group of NYC founders —

Real

CEO

Ariela Safira

,

Laguna Health

CEO

Yoni Shtein

,

Hopper Health

CEO

Katya Siddall-Cipolla

,

Somethings

CEO

Patrick Gilligan

, and

Robin

CEO

Sonny Thadani

— on what wellbeing means beyond the pandemic, and what’s left to do to open up access to mental health resources to all New Yorkers.

Read the full interviews here.

Visible Hands has announced that applications for their third cohort of the Visionaries Accelerator program are now open! This year, founders will get a $200K investment for 5% equity on a post-money SAFE, programming that will level up their fundraising, design, and brand, and as always, a close-knit cohort of early-stage diverse founders and more. Learn more and apply by May 29 here.Betaworks is accepting applications for its AI Camp: Augment accelerator program. The three-month program offers 8-10 pre-seed/seed applied machine learning and generative AI companies a $500,000 investment, as well as mentorship and programming opportunities. Learn more and apply by May 31 here.Samvid Ventures, in partnership with Techstars, is accepting applications for its Economic Mobility Accelerator program. The program is seeking entrepreneurs with solutions focused on generating greater economic mobility for low- and moderate-income Americans. Learn more and apply by June 7 here.The NYU Tandon Future Labs is accepting applications for its Keystone program, a no-cost, virtual 8-week entrepreneurship training program for early-stage founders in New York. Learn more and apply by June 14 here.The Grand Central Tech Residency Program is accepting applications for its Fall 2023 cohort. Selected startups receive free office rent for a year, as well as other community and programming benefits. Learn more and apply by July 15 here.

• May 30: Virtual: Investors Unscripted: Crisis Management, with Mercury CEO Immad Akhund, Primary Venture Partners general partner Cassie Young, Outcast SVP Amanda Duckworth, and Sapphire Ventures partner Paul Levine. Hosted by Mercury. Register here.

• May 30: In-person: FoodNiche Summit 2023, with NYC Mayor’s Office of Food Policy executive director Kate MacKenzie, Tastewise CEO Alon Chen, AgroFresh CTO Duncan Aust, and more. Hosted by FoodNiche. Register here.

• June 1: Virtual: The Future of Clean Tech Innovations, with Sol Systems CEO Yuri Horwitz, Arcadia COO Kate Henningsen, and GRAIN Ecosystem co-founder Jason Dodier. Hosted by Savills. Register here.

• June 6: In-person: Build Your Own Generative AI App, with Replit, Ansa Capital, and Lerer Hippeau. Register here.

• June 6: In-person: Newlab Resilient Studio Showcase, with ElectricFish, Orenda Power, Urban Electric Power, WATTMORE, and Yotta Energy. Hosted by Newlab, NYCEDC, and ConEd. Register here.

• June 8: In-person: Cornell Tech Fest 2023, featuring dozens of industry speakers and presentations from Abstractive Health, Geothara, MyLÚA Health, Truffle Health, and more. Hosted by Cornell Tech. Register here.

• June 8: In-person: Founder Friends: A Fireside Chat with Hustle Fund, featuring Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod. Hosted by Hustle Fund and Company Ventures. Register here.

• June 14: Make It in Brooklyn: Clean Energy Innovations, with itselectric co-founder Tiya Gordon, Streetlife Ventures managing partner Laura Fox, Latinxs in Sustainability lead Melina Acevedo, and Wildgrid partnerships manager Martine Luis. Hosted by Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. Register here.