Tech:NYC Digest: February 1

Tech:NYC Digest: February 1

February 01, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Happy Black History Month, and a Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate! 🐯 In today’s digest, Pfizer seeks FDA approval of vaccine for young children, final vaccination deadline for city employees is approaching, and tech companies go public with their paid leave policies.

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By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 7,119

    • New positive cases, NYC: 2,639

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 4.3 percent (-0.2 percent)  

  • NYC Hospitalizations: 3,072 (-54)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • Percentage of all New Yorkers with least one dose: 87.6 percent

    • Percentage of all New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 74.1 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • Pfizer is expected to ask the FDA to authorize a coronavirus vaccine for children under five years old, but as a two-dose regimen while they continue to study the effect of a three dose series. Drugmakers predict the vaccine for young kids could be available as soon as the end of February. (New York Times)

  • The statewide vaccine or test mandate for indoor settings will remain in place after an appellate judge issued a permanent stay of the rule. (Newsday)

  • Police, firefighters, and other New York City employees will face a final deadline to get vaccinated by Feb. 11 or be terminated. (NBC New York)

  • Early research on the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2 is still scant, but one Danish study found it is more contagious and better at evading vaccines than other COVID strains. Like other variants, vaccinated people don’t transmit it as easily as the unvaccinated. (CNBC)

In other reading:

  • We’re Thinking About Endemicity All Wrong (The Atlantic)

  • You Can Travel Without a COVID-19 Booster, But It Will Be Annoying (Wall Street Journal)

  • Even if they can find a test, not everyone wants to know they have COVID (NPR)

In the race for top talent, companies are under pressure to make their benefits offerings as attractive as possible. A new campaign is asking those companies to take it a step further: disclose them publicly.

At the end of 2021, theSkimm, the New York City-based newsletter and digital media company, invited its readers to submit their experiences with paid family leave using the hashtag #ShowUsYourLeave.

  • “We’re launching the #ShowUsYourLeave movement because not only do we need to get loud about the struggles we’ve faced with in navigating new parenthood and how paid family leave, or lack thereof, has an impact, but we also need resources and solutions that we can utilize to create change together,” the company’s website states. 

In response, over 100 companies shared their paid family leave policies, many in concise, easy-to-skim (Skimm?) graphics made for Twitter and LinkedIn (which we’ve linked to below). Some of the examples we’ve collected:

  • Etsy provides 26 weeks of fully paid parental leave, subsidized backup care, adoption and surrogacy reimbursements, and the option to trade up to 14 weeks of parental leave for a cash benefit to support the transition back to work. 

  • Intuit includes 16 weeks of parental time off, plus an additional four weeks of paid time off to care for family members.

  • Maven offers 16 weeks of paid parental leave, a new parent stipend for childcare and other expenses, flexible PTO and work schedules, WFH for eight weeks after returning to work, and bereavement leave for miscarriage and infant loss.

  • Ro includes four months of fully paid parental leave, flexible work arrangements for those returning from leave, flexible PTO, and benefits and stipends for egg-freezing and other fertility services. 

  • Taboola offers 26 weeks of paid leave for primary caregivers and eight weeks for secondary caregivers, as well as the option to work part-time hours with full-time pay for two months after returning from leave.

Other major tech employers have also recently expanded their benefits ahead of fuller office reopening announcements:

  • Google is expanding parental leave to 18 weeks for all parents and 24 weeks for parents who give birth. As of April 2, it will also let employees take up to eight weeks of caregiver leave, doubling its previous allowance.

In other reading: 

  • Asana’s productivity expert says to ditch the 30-minute meeting (Protocol)

  • Remote work isn’t hurting innovation. Work is. (Vox)

  • The Open-Plan Office Is Dead. Do This Instead. (Inc.)

  • Lex, a New York-based commercial real estate securities marketplace, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Peak6 led the round and was joined by Khosla Ventures, MetaProp, Two Lanterns, MUFG Innovation Partners, and Gaingels. (The Real Deal)

  • Lunchbox, a New York-based digital ordering platform for enterprise restaurant chains and ghost kitchens, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Coatue led the round and was joined by Primary Venture Partners and 645 Ventures. (TechCrunch)

  • Pixm, a New York-based computer vision cyber security startup, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Gula Tech Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including FirstIn, AIM13, Chaac Ventures, and Precursor Ventures. (VentureBeat)

  • WhoseYourLandlord, a New York-based online landlord rating and reviewing platform, raised $2.1 million in seed funding. Black Operator Ventures led the round and was joined by New York Ventures, Ben Franklin Tech Partners, Gold Wynn, and Googleʼs Black Founders Fund. (TechCrunch)

  • Withco, a New York-based commercial property ownership platform for SMBs, raised $32 million in combined seed and Series A funding. Canaan Partners, Founders Fund, Initialized Capital and NFX co-led the round and were joined by Enlightened Hospitality Investments, Thirty Five Ventures, Dreamers VC, BoxGroup, Not Boring Capital, and Quiet Capital. (TechCrunch)

  • February 1: Virtual: Hospitality in the Digital Age, with Olo founder and CEO Noah Glass. Hosted by Savills. Register here.

  • February 2: Virtual: #notapitch: Unofficial Feedback on Your Idea/Prototype from a VC,  with Charlie O’Donnell. Hosted by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Register here.

  • February 8: Virtual: The changing role of the CIO, with Honeywell chief digital technology officer Sheila Jordan, ServiceNow CIO, Chris Bedis, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • February 10: Virtual: How to Raise Funding and Scale a Startup, with New York Angels founder David S. Rose, Caribu CEO Maxeme Tuchman, and more. Hosted by DownToDash and Innovatemap. Register here.

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