Tech:NYC Digest: April 12

Tech:NYC Digest: April 12

April 12, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Tuesday, April 12, 2022  

In today’s digest, Sunset Park subway shooting renews calls for public safety solutions, Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin resigns, Manhattan’s economy adapts to the new world of work, and how Envoy delivers technical training in a hybrid workplace.

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By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 3,666     

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,370

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 2.8 percent (no change)

  • NYC Hospitalizations: 348 (+20)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 89.8 percent

    • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 76.5 percent  

In today’s latest:

First, our thoughts are with all those impacted by the subway shooting in Sunset Park this morning. What we know so far:

  • At least 29 people were injured, ten of which were shot, but all of them are fortunately in stable condition. Several nearby public schools went into “shelter in place” orders following the shooting, and as of publication time, the suspect is still at large.

  • MTA officials said regular D/N/R service would not return “for some time,” but most other lines are running with regular service. NYC Ferry is also waiving fares on the South Brooklyn route for the remainder of the day. Upon being made aware of the incident, Uber and Lyft began refunding customers charged with surge prices and freezing fares near the site of the shooting.

  • Shootings in NYC rose during the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year, even as homicides were down, but today’s incident underscores just how much public safety remains the top concern for New Yorkers emerging from the pandemic. (New York Times)

In other news:

  • Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin today has resigned following his arrest on bribery and fraud charges as part of a federal indictment alleging illegal contributions to his previous political campaigns. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on $250,000 bail, and will need special permission to travel to Albany. (New York Times)

  • As more NYC companies settle into their hybrid work plans, city officials are turning more attention to how Manhattan’s broader economy, which relies in part on office workers, will adapt. (New York Times)

    • But while workers’ traffic and spending habits have changed, remote policies haven’t triggered the exodus that many predicted. For example, since Zillow announced its employees can live and work anywhere in the country, the company’s NYC workforce has grown to more than 300, a 15 percent increase from two years earlier.

  • Columbia University is one of several colleges and universities reinstating indoor mask mandates in response to rising case counts. Non-cloth masks will be required in classrooms for the remainder of the semester. (New York Times)

In other reading:

  • Why a Coronavirus-Flu ‘Twindemic’ May Never Happen (New York Times)

  • Is It Time To Start Masking Again? Well, It Depends. (The Atlantic)

  • Tales From Little Ukraine, a Village in the East Village (Curbed)

There’s been virtually no workplace experience untouched by the pandemic, and that includes learning and development.

  • Early in the pandemic, companies tried to just move everything they would’ve done around a conference table to Zoom or create virtual training sessions employees could watch on their own schedules.

  • Others outsourced their training programs to digital-native providers, and gave employees stipends to access those resources.

But video and Zoom fatigue has only gotten worse, and to attract talent, companies will have to get more creative about how they offer technical training in the post-pandemic workplace.

Envoy chief people officer Anette Reavis told Protocol she makes a distinction between “official” training and “on-the-job” training and builds the company’s programs from that perspective. 

  • “We ask the talent that joins our company to come in two to three days a week. [When] managers know that they've got focused time … that's when you do your team meetings. That's when you do your one-on-ones, that's when you have lunch together. That's one piece. And then when they're remote, you're really more focused on execution.”

For more specialized training, Envoy also offers all employees a $1,000 “L&D credit” to spend on outside learning so individuals can choose courses and subscriptions that are hyper-specific to their jobs. 

At the same time tech companies are investing in their existing workforces, they’re also making deeper investments in training programs to upskill the next generation of candidates for their roles:

  • Google launched a $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund to provide 20,000 American workers with programs designed to teach in-demand skills tech companies will be hiring for in the future.

The takeaway: The technology — and the labor market — is moving faster than many training programs can keep up. Companies that think about learning and development with a more holistic approach will be the ones who are ready to hire — and who will hire the ready.

In other reading:

  • Employees Spend More Time Coordinating Their Work Than Actually Working. The Remedy? Host Fewer Meetings (Inc.)

  • Notes are better than tasks, and other hot takes from an Evernote expert (Protocol)

  • Glow Labs, a NYC-based customer rewards platform for NFT creators, raised $4.15 million in seed funding. Harlem Capital led the round and was joined by Forerunner Ventures, Female Founders Fund, Red Beard Ventures, and Human Ventures. (TechCrunch)

  • Lucky, a NYC and Miami-based omnichannel commerce tech company, raised $3 million in seed funding. Unusual Ventures led the round and was joined by Plug and Play Ventures, as well as a group of angels. (TechCrunch)

  • Real, a NYC-based mental health app, raised $37 million in Series B funding. Owl Ventures led the round and was joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Female Founders Fund, Forerunner Ventures, and BBG Ventures. (TechCrunch)

  • April 21: Virtual: How is the Infrastructure rollout going — and what does it means for tech?, with US Dept. of Commerce assistant secretary Alan Davidson, National Digital Inclusion Alliance executive director Angela Siefer, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • April 21: Virtual: Women In Product: Challenging Gender Inequity in Funding, with Forum Ventures DEI strategist Steph Jones, Calico founder and CEO Kathleen Chan, and Innovatemap growth manager Ashley King. Hosted by Innovatemap. Register here.

  • April 27: Virtual: Solving for the Last Mile, with Veho co-founder and CEO Itamar Zur. Hosted by Savills America. Register here.

  • April 29: Virtual: Creating a Culture of Data Sharing, with NYC chief analytics officers Martha Norrick, NYC Council Technology Committee chair Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez, and others. Hosted by City & State. Register here.

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