Tech:NYC Digest: February 2

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Thursday, February 2, 2023

• First, a little news from Team Tech:NYC: We’re excited to welcome Julie Samuels back as our president and executive director! Here’s our announcement. 

In today’s digest, breaking down New York’s $227 billion state budget, how NYC beat the mpox outbreak, and Scott Belsky shares his thoughts on the opportunity of AI.

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• New York is proposing $1 billion in new support for asylum seekers who have arrived in NYC, including funding for shelter, healthcare services, resettlement, and legal assistance. (Gothamist)

  • The allocation is part of a $227 billion executive budget proposal released yesterday by Gov. Kathy Hochul, thanks in part to an $8.7 billion surplus in available funding. Find the full proposal here.

• NYC today officially declared an end to the mpox outbreak, after the seven-day average for new cases stood at zero for most of January. (NY1)

• Staten Island Chuck predicts an early spring, but Punxsutawney Phil says there are six more weeks of winter. Phil might be right this time…

• …So make sure you bundle up this weekend! 

In other reading:

• Are We Bungling the COVID Wind-down? (The Atlantic)

• The Tax Breaks On the Table for NYC Office Conversions (Bloomberg)

• The New Rules of Tipping (Grub Street)

Scott Belsky has a kaleidoscopic outlook on the tech industry: he’s been a startup founder and CEO, an executive at a household brand, and a prolific early investor in companies like Pinterest, Uber, Sweetgreen, and Periscope.

ICYMI: Tech:NYC, alongside our partners at Cornell Tech and Bloomberg, launched the 2023 season of our long-running speaker series with Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer. Here’s some of what he had to say:

• On managing teams through transition: “It’s not realistic to say that the long-term vision of what you might achieve in five years is enough to keep you going … If you can weave a culture that gets people who love working together — and the problem they’re solving — enough to almost forget time is passing, then you might actually stick together long enough to get it right.”

• On Adobe’s merger with Figma: “Figma should change Adobe. Figma is new DNA.”

• On the opportunity of AI: “Right now there’s just this Cambrian explosion of possibility with this technology … The creative work that comes out of process-oriented tools will be even more distinguished. It’s a powerful technology. But, as with all technology, we need to steward it.” 

Stream the full conversation on-demand here.

In other reading:

• How AI Could Change Project Management (Harvard Business Review)

• As investors tighten their belts, here are 4 steps startups can still take to raise funds (Fast Company)

• Promote Yourself Better (Wall Street Journal)

• Constellation, a NYC-based creative marketing technology company, raised $15 million in funding. Newlight Partners led the round. (Axios)

• Gem Security, a NYC and Tel Aviv-based cloud security operations platform, raised $11 million in seed funding. Team8 led the round. (TechCrunch)

• Kubeark, a NYC-based enterprise delivery and management platform, raised $2.8 million in pre-seed funding. Credo Ventures led the round and was joined by Seedcamp, LAUNCHub Ventures, 500 Emerging Europe, and others. (Businesswire)

• LeafLink, a NYC-based wholesale cannabis platform, raised $100 million in Series B funding. CPMG, L2 Ventures, and Nosara Capital co-led the round. (Axios)

• Passthrough, a NYC-based fund workflow automation platform for investors, fund managers, and other fintechs, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Positive Sum led the round and was joined by Motley Fool Ventures, Broadhaven Ventures, Company Ventures, and Great Oaks VC. (TechCrunch)

• Sovereign Labs, a NYC and remote-based blockchain scaling company, raised $7.4 million in seed funding. Haun Ventures led the round and was joined by Maven 11, 1KX, Robot Ventures, and Plaintext Capital. (CoinDesk)

• Spark, a NYC-based retirement benefits navigation software startup, raised $15 million in Series A funding, American Family Ventures led the round and was joined by Primary Ventures, Torch Capital, and Vine Ventures. (Axios)

• February 9: In-person: Disrupting Delaware: Smarter Strategies for Starting your Startup, with Tusk Ventures CEO Bradley Tusk, Catawba Digital Economic Zone CEO Joseph McKinney, Vice Ventures founding partner Catharine Dockery, and others. Register here.

• February 9: In-person: Stories of STEM Success: Alternative Career Pathways, with K50 head of platform Jessica Lowenstein, Deutsche Bank vice president of strategy and innovation Clarisse Awamengwi, Women in Tech director of business development Marion Siboni, and others. Hosted by Women in Tech USA. Use code WOMENINTECH23 and select the “Women in Tech Partner Ticket” for half off the original price. Register here.

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