Tech:NYC Digest: July 10

Tech:NYC Digest: July 10

July 10, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Monday, July 10, 2023

In today’s digest, introducing the Tech:NYC Founder House, how drones are powering beach safety in New York, and the newest data on New York’s return-to-office. 

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  • After trailing the national average for most of the pandemic, New York's return-to-office rate is now roughly even with other major metropolitan areas. (Crain’s New York Business)

  • New York state has requested assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after devastating floods in the Hudson Valley caused at least one death and tens of millions of dollars worth of damage. (Gothamist) 

    • The MTA’s Metro-North Railroad partially shut down service on its Hudson and Harlem lines on Monday in response to the flooding, while Amtrak shut down its service from New York to Albany. (amNewYork)

  • State officials are using drones to search for sharks at popular state beaches, after five people reported being bitten last week. (NBC New York)

In other reading:

  • Where Does New York City Office Furniture Go When No One Wants It? (New York Times)

  • Turning New York’s Stately Public Library Into a Place ‘to Hang Out In’ (New York Times)

  • 15 ways to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop around NYC (Gothamist)

Introducing … the Tech:NYC Founder House! 

Tomorrow, we’re opening our doors on a new initiative to support New Yorkers founders at the earliest stages of their companies. The Founder House, launched in partnership with WeWork, will offer a new home for early-stage founders to connect with (and work alongside) other founders in New York.

Here are some of the details: 

  • The Founder House will open to a curated group of 25 entrepreneurs once every quarter to provide dedicated office space at a city WeWork location, collaborative programming, and coordinated 1:1 time for founders to connect with top NYC investors and other leading figures in the industry — all powered by Tech:NYC's network of more than 800 member companies.

  • The Founder House is developed to serve early-stage startups, but with a focus underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs building in emerging sector areas like AI, climate tech, blockchain, and more.

"A big reason why New York City has emerged as a leading global tech hub is the collaborative and supportive environment in which our founders operate, and this partnership takes that a step further,” said Julie Samuels, President and Executive Director of Tech:NYC.

Why now? Even as COVID-19 pushed everyone remote, the city’s startup ecosystem continued to expand. The five boroughs are now home to more than 25,000 startups, many of which were founded since the pandemic began.

  • Tech:NYC consistently hears from founders who launched their businesses during COVID-19 lockdowns, reporting that they missed out on many of the opportunities for in-person collaboration and networking especially important to startups just getting off the ground.

Access to that collaborative ecosystem that attracted Joshe Ordonez to launch Airpals, a B2B logistics platform, in New York. "And I plan to stay here because of resources like this,” Ordonez said. “Tech:NYC Founder House will be instrumental in driving our growth and opening us up to new opportunities." 

Learn more about our plans here, and stay tuned: We’re excited to introduce you to more of our partners and the inaugural cohort of founders soon!

In other reading:

  • As layoffs ease, tech CHROs want to focus on managing their workforces (HR Brew)

  • Your Summer Vacation Can Help Your Career (The Wall Street Journal)

  • For $3,000 You Too Might Snag a Full-Time Work-From-Home Job (Bloomberg)

  • Anise Health, a NYC-based telemental health startup focused on people of color, raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding. Kicker Ventures led the round and was joined by Gold House Ventures and Allston Venture Fund.

  • July 13: In-person: Supercharging your company with AI, with OpenAI developer advocate Logan Kilpatrick and Primary partner Brian Schechter and principal Tobias Citron. Hosted by SVB. Register here.

  • July 13: In-person: PrimeTime VC Live, with Bessemer Venture Partners partner Elliott Robinson, Vamos Ventures principal Ashley Aydin, ANIM Fund partner Jason Scott, and Google for Startups fund manager Samantha Rodriguez. Hosted by PrimeTime VC and Google Cloud. Register here.

  • July 19: In-person: Building a Proptech Startup, with Moved president Caren Maio, Stak Mobility CEO Diallo Powell, a16z partner Sumeet Singh, and Common founder Brad Hargreaves. Hosted by Stacklist. Register here.

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