Tech:NYC Digest: December 14

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

In today’s digest, Hochul says holiday surge is here, the next (two) Council speaker(s), and why Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield says RTO is “doomed.”

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By the numbers:

• New positive cases statewide: 8,266

  • New positive cases, NYC: 2,830

• NYC Positivity Rate: 2.9 percent (+0.1 percent)

• Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

  • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 93.5 percent

  • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 81.1 percent

Today’s latest: 

• Gov. Kathy Hochul warned today that the holiday surge is well underway, citing a 58 percent increase in COVID-19 cases and a 70 percent increase in hospitalizations per 100,000 residents since Thanksgiving. (NBC New York)

  • The Omicron variant is spreading across the US but even more so in New York and New Jersey, where genomic sequencing is detecting it at a rate of about 13 percent versus three percent nationally, the head of the CDC says.

• A highly anticipated study of Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill confirmed it significantly staves off severe disease or hospitalization if given within three days of the onset of symptoms. The antiviral pill also worked in laboratory studies against the Omicron variant. (CNN)

• Several tenant and housing groups in New York filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to force the state to reopen its pandemic rent relief program, arguing a recent decision to stop accepting applications for aid has left thousands of struggling renters vulnerable to eviction. (New York Times)

• Today, the candidate to be the next New York City Council Speaker declared victory, but we’re still unsure who it is. After four candidates dropped out and supported Adrienne Adams, Adams announced she “received the necessary votes” to become Speaker. Within the hour, her competitor Francisco Moya also said he had enough votes to win. In classic New York fashion, this contest is not going to go away quietly. (NY1) 

In other reading:

• Omicron Is a Dress Rehearsal for the Next Pandemic (New York Times)

• The ‘Double Whammy’ That Is Slowing NYC’s Job Growth (New York Times)

• The US started vaccinating a year ago. Here’s how it has gone since then. (New York Times)

Stewart Butterfield thinks the return to office is “doomed.” Companies continue to brainstorm creative ways to incentivize a fuller return to the office, but with the ever-moving goalposts of those plans, that strategy may have run its course.

In an interview with the Washington Post, the Slack CEO shared how his thinking on remote work has evolved:

• “If you asked [me] in February of 2020, could the whole company go remote and maintain the same level of productivity? I would have said no. When something you thought was impossible turns out to be possible, you’ve got to ask yourself, what else do I think is impossible that could actually be possible?”

Butterfield has been exploring how his own employees work.

• Slack implemented a permanent remote work policy, which it says will help attract top talent. (Slack has hired roughly 50 percent of its workforce during the pandemic, crediting the flexible work policy as a competitive differentiator.)

On what’s not working:

• “There’s still very little training on effective communication or how to run meetings. … We probably had prematurely narrowed our view of what works at work and should think of this as a time when there’s a lot of opportunity to rethink and reimagine.”

On what should define the future of work:

• “The most important thing is what we call the digital headquarters. There obviously is some digital infrastructure that’s really critical to supporting productivity and collaboration.”

• “The other thing that’s interesting and kind of unrelated to how we work is the shifting dynamics in the labor market. The balance has shifted in such a way that the market will determine how much time people expect to be in the office, not the employers.”

On the leadership skills needed for hybrid work:

• “It’s really clarity around objectives and rules, expectations from people. [Doing that] was always really demanding. This makes it harder.” 

In other reading:

• Omicron derails company holiday parties (Axios)

• You’re Going to Work a Long Time. Here’s How to Build in Breaks (New York Times)

• Tech Talent Shortage Looms Behind Return-to-Office Delays (The Information)

• Cadence, a New York City-based virtual patient monitoring startup, raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. Coatue led the round and was joined by General Catalyst and Thrive Capital. (Bloomberg)

• Carto, a New York City-based spatial analytics platform, raised $61 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by European Investment Fund, as well as insiders Accel, Salesforce Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Earlybird, and Kibo. (TechCrunch)

• Polymer, a New York City-based no-code SaaS for automated data loss prevention, raised $4 million in seed funding. Story Ventures led the round and was joined by Indicator Ventures, Studio VC, Green Egg Ventures, Maccabee Ventures, Value Acceleration Group, Tensility Venture Partners, Motivate Venture Capital, and Inspiration Ventures. (VentureBeat)

• Sollis Health, a New York City-based medical emergency concierge service, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Torch Capital and Denali Growth Partners co-led the round. (Insider)

• December 14 – 15: Virtual: Bloomberg Technology Summit, with K Health CEO Allon Bloch, Coinbase president and COO Emilie Choi, Lux Capital partner Deena Shakir, and others. Hosted by Bloomberg. Register here.

• December 16: Virtual: The Future of Sustainable Investing, with S&P Global Sustainable1 president Richard Mattison and Moody’s Climate Solutions global head Emilie Mazzacurati. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

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