Tech:NYC Digest: February 8

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Tuesday, February 8, 2022

In today’s digest, MTA sets a start date for fare-capping pilot, some officials consider a post-COVID America, and how tech companies can more effectively hire talent. 

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By the numbers:  

• New positive cases statewide: 4,281 

  • New positive cases, NYC: 1,642

• NYC Positivity Rate: 2.8 percent (-0.1 percent)

• NYC Hospitalizations: 2,077 (-31)

• Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

  • Percentage of all New Yorkers with least one dose: 88.0 percent

  • Percentage of all New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 74.6 percent

Today’s latest: 

• A growing number of top government and health officials are saying it’s time to start “living with the virus.” (New York Times)

  • An Axios-Ipsos poll found one in three Americans expects to catch COVID within the next month — and only one in 10 thinks it will be eradicated by this time next year.

  • In the same poll, 50 percent thought the country should either drop all mandates or gradually move toward opening up, and 70 percent said they’d be willing to receive an annual booster shot, similar to a flu shot.

• At the end of the month, the MTA will launch a four-month long fare-capping pilot program as it hopes to lure riders back after two years of pandemic-related losses. Any subway or bus rider who uses the OMNY contactless payment system and takes 12 trips within that week will automatically be upgraded to an unlimited pass for the rest of the week. (Gothamist)

• The CDC has shortened the amount of time people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised need to wait before getting a fourth COVID vaccine booster dose. They now recommend that the severely immunocompromised can get an additional Pfizer or Moderna shot three months after their third dose instead of five months. (ABC New York)

• Oh deer: While there is no evidence to suggest cross-species transmission, a new study of white-tailed deer in Staten Island found several tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies. (ABC News)

In other reading:

• A new attitude toward the pandemic is taking shape. But we’ve been here before. (Washington Post)

• Does Exposure to Omicron Help Our Immunity, Even If We Don’t Get Sick? (Wall Street Journal)

• Why NYC isn’t recording most at-home COVID tests — and what officials could be missing (Gothamist)

In conversations with Tech:NYC member companies, leaders almost universally agree on their top three priorities right now: hiring, hiring, and hiring. And for many, it feels like it’s getting harder than ever.

When Protocol spoke with tech workers, they said one way companies can attract staff and avoid the Great Resignation is to go all in on their offers. (Protocol)

• ThoughtExchange CEO Dave McLeod said one reason many employees are leaving their jobs right now is because they feel their demands aren’t being heard.

So how are companies strategizing now?

One approach: give employees what they want, which is everything.

• Increase base pay and benefits, embrace remote work, and dedicate resources to company culture. But that strategy is obviously costly and, some tech leaders worry, unsustainable in the long run. Executives have to be careful about offering shorter-term perks as a recruitment tool — once those perks are implemented, it’s very hard to reverse them.

Another approach: prioritize ruthlessly, especially if money and time are limited. 

• What are the most important duties for you to fill? Which ones do you need to finish the most quickly? Put your time and money into them, worry less about the others, and hope it pays off. Even if it does, growth doesn’t happen without the growing pains.

Some companies have tried to hire headhunters or recruiters, or tried to beef up their own HR teams. But as Protocol put it, “hiring the hirers is unsurprisingly tricky right now — and, uh, that’s just more hiring to do.”

Clearly there’s no one foolproof, correct way to do this, but if your company has tips for hiring — or if you’re a tech worker that’s undergone a process you found worked well — we’d love to hear about it.

In other reading: 

• Why the Metaverse Will Change the Way You Work (Wall Street Journal)

• What We Lose When Work Gets Too Casual (New York Times)

• How to know if the 4-day workweek would work for your company (Protocol)

• Curve Health, a New York City-based telemedicine platform for seniors, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Morningside Ventures led the round and was joined by Alumni Ventures and Recover-Care Healthcare, as well as insiders Lightspeed Venture Partners, IDEO, Inflect Health, Correlation Ventures, Rosecliff Venture Partners, Kapor Capital, WTI, and angel investor Ben Jealous. (Newswire)

• Leverage, a New York City-based supply chain visibility platform, raised $5 million in growth funding from Las Olas VC, Mark Cuban, Gaingels, and Great Oaks.

• Radar, a New York City-based geofencing platform, raised $55 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by Accel, Two Sigma Ventures, and Heavybit. (MarTech)

• Trialjectory, a New York City-based cancer care decision-support platform, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by JAL Ventures and insiders Contour Venture Partners, Rho Capital, and TIA Ventures. (Newswire)

• February 9: Virtual: Crypto regulation: from buyer beware to federal oversight, with Blockchain Association executive director Kristin Smith, Inx general counsel Cathy Yoon, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

• February 10: Virtual: Pathways to Tech, with Emerging Leaders Program founder John Garibaldi, Vimeo SVP of people Meghan Lapides, Senior Vice President of People at Vimeo, and Comp Sci High founding principal David Noah, and Bolster VP Bethany Crystal. 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.

• February 10: Virtual: Nailing the Investor Pitch: A Workshop for startup Founders, with 37 Angels investor Julie Lerner, Speakable CEO Will Carlin, and One Perfect Pitch coach Marie Perruchet. Hosted by NY Tech Alliance. Register here.

• February 17: Virtual: Web3 Video and the Future of Content Ownership, with Glass.xyz founder Dayo Adeosun. Hosted by Betaworks Studios. Register here.

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