Tech:NYC Digest: February 9

Tech:NYC Digest: February 9

February 09, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Thursday, February 9, 2023

In today’s digest, introducing NYC’s next class of impact entrepreneurs, the local developer turning offices into apartments, and how one startup plans to crowdsource the future of hybrid work.

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  • The New York City Economic Development Corporation, in partnership with Company Ventures, announced the second cohort of its City Fellowship, a program for early-stage underrepresented founders “solving entrenched challenges for New Yorkers.” (Crain’s New York Business)

    • See the full list of selected startups here.

  • New York state officials will allow masking requirements in hospitals and health care facilities to expire beginning Feb. 12, signaling an end to one of the state’s last remaining COVID-era requirements. (Politico)

  • And the New Yorker of the Week award goes to newly-elected Rep. Dan Goldman, who held the inaugural “US House Bagel Caucus” meeting and introduced his Capitol Hill colleagues to real bagels this morning.

In other reading:

  • The Prophet of Urban Doom Says New York Still Has a Chance (New York Times)

  • He Turned Empty Wall Street Offices Into Homes. Now He Vows to Remake New York (Bloomberg)

  • A New Museum Exhibition Says: Hip-Hop, Still Fly at 50 (New York Times)

Staying in the know about any tech company’s hybrid work policy isn’t easy — in part because the details aren’t typically on their websites or job postings, in part because those policies are still changing.

The hybrid work management startup Scoop is trying to change that.

What’s new: Scoop this week launched the Flex Index, a new database tool that makes employers’ flexible work policies searchable to help job seekers and HR executives looking to compare policies or track trends.

  • The database has cataloged the remote and hybrid work policies of about 4,000 employers so far, but Scoop CEO Rob Sadow says there’s still a “massive insight gap” on how remote work varies across sector, metro area, and job function. (Forbes)

  • At least 50% of applications submitted on LinkedIn today are for remote jobs, according to the latest reports.

The Flex Index allows anyone to easily search companies based on flexibility offerings — from “Fully Remote” to “Full Time in Office” and everything in between.

Yes, but: What companies say their policy is may not actually be how employees behave.

  • Scoop has so far been gathering information about companies’ remote work rules largely through employee surveys, but most existing datasets out there follow trends about individual workers, rather than companies’ practices.

  • The company does, however, cross-check the survey data and invite HR leaders at respondent companies to verify details. 

Our take: Even if all the data isn’t verified yet, it’s still a useful tool. The seemingly infinite versions of RTO we’ve heard about could still benefit from more standardized language and metrics.  

  • Blip Labs, a NYC-based embedded bill pay startup, raised $2.1 million in seed funding. Participating investors include Susa Ventures, Dash Fund, Shrug Capital, Wischoff Ventures, Picks and Shovels, Browder Capital and Rief Ventures.

  • Canoe, a NYC-based back-office automation startup for alt asset managers, raised $25 million in Series B funding. F-Prime Capital led the round and was joined by Eight Roads Ventures.

  • Levels, a NYC-based metabolic nutrition startup, raised $7 million in Series A extension funding. Participating inventors include TriplePoint Capital, as well as insiders a16z, Trust Ventures, and Shrug Capital.

  • Macro, a NYC-based developer of PDF and word processing tools, raised $9.3 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by Craft Ventures, BoxGroup, and Third Kind Venture Capital.

  • Marker Learning, a NYC-based provider of remote learning and attention disability services, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by Virgin Group, Primary Ventures, Difference Partners, Operator Partners, and Night Ventures.

  • Tuned, a NYC-based digital hearing health company, raised $3.5 million in seed extension funding. Distributed Ventures led the round and was joined by Idealab NY and MTS.

  • Vault, a NYC-based digital music collectible company, raised $4 million in Series A funding. Placeholder VC led the round and was joined by AlleyCorp, Bullpen Capital, and Everblue Management.

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