Tech:NYC Digest: August 18

Tech:NYC Digest: August 18

August 18, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Thursday, August 18, 2022 

During the month of August, Thursday is the new Friday. In honor of the long-standing tradition of summer Fridays, here are our favorite five highlights in New York tech this week, one day early; see you on Monday!

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Companies to Watch: Five New York Founders Solving Systemic Challenges (Tech:NYC)

  • This month, we teamed up with the Citi Impact Fund to invite a diverse group of New York founders for a night at the ballpark! While the Mets continued a record winning streak at Citi Field, we took the opportunity to ask them what more our community could be doing to support women and BIPOC-led startups. For this month’s edition of Companies to Watch, they gave us their ideas. 

Revel expands its electric vehicles to Harlem and Astoria (Crain’s New York Business)

  • It was only this month a year ago that Brooklyn-based Revel launched its rideshare service south of 42nd Street in Manhattan. Now, with the country's largest charging “superhub” in Bed-Stuy and $126 million in new funding, it’s expanding its footprint to cover Harlem, Roosevelt Island, and Astoria and Sunnyside in Queens. There’s a lot more to do in building out the city’s EV infrastructure, but this is proof the appetite is there, and companies like Revel are just getting started.

Google, Queens College bring career readiness program to Latino students (QNS)

  • Queens College is one of 35 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) receiving investments from Google to provide accelerated digital skills training to Latinx students. One reason we’re excited about this program: a lot of similar programs focus on preparing young people for careers in tech, but this program acknowledges how critical tech skills are to all industries and encourages students to take them into any field of work they choose.

These BK Brothers Turned Their Family Brownstone Into the First-Ever ‘Black Residency Hacker House’ (BK Reader)

  • RHouse, as they call it, is a space in Bed-Stuy for Black engineers, founders, and creators to work on their tech projects. It’s run by the Fields brothers  — that is, when they’re not busy with their roles on Community Board 3 and as co-presidents of their block association. After opening in July with its first cohort, they’ve already received more than 150 applications from across the globe. 

Voyage of the Gross (New York Magazine)

  • New Yorkers are aware of just how unideal the piles of trash on the sidewalks are (consider this our endorsement of the city’s containerized bin pilot!). But if you’ve ever wondered what happens when it gets picked up from your block — or if you generally nerd out on urban infrastructure as much as we do — this is the weekend read for you.

PS: Don’t hold off if you’ve been waiting to try out that neighborhood hot spot: NYC Restaurant Week is finishing off with its fifth week of prix fixe dining, so get your fill before the feast ends on Sunday, Aug. 21.

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