Tech:NYC Digest: July 27

Tech:NYC Digest: July 27

July 27, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

In today’s digest, the battle between the unvaccinated hesitant and the vaccinated impatient, Humu’s advice on how to not botch your return-to-office strategy, the tech tools NYC is seeking to support the unbanked, and your guide to Bryant Park summer movie nights.

Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 1,679 (+383)

    • New positive cases, NYC: 904 (+161)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 2

  • NYC Positivity Rates: 

    • NYS reports: 1.9 percent (+0.2 percent)

    • NYC reports: 2.4 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 74.7 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 62.4 percent

(For fuller breakdowns, find the state’s numbers here and the city’s numbers here.)

Today’s latest:

As the Delta variant continues to threaten the progress made in NYC and other cities, the next phase of the pandemic will be defined as the unvaccinated vs. the vaccinated, which is to say: refusal vs. anger.

The US is back up to more than 50,000 new cases per day, and there are plenty of reasons for why some 30 percent of American adults remain hesitant to get the vaccine.

  • And they’re not all anti-vaxxers — that contingent is a very loud, but very small, segment of the holdouts. As public health advocate Rhea Boyd explains in a conversation with The Atlantic, availability and access issues are much more at fault. A lot of vaccine information isn’t common knowledge, and providing credible, plain language resources on everything from the various provider types to side effects can help move the needle.

For those who have gotten the vaccine, frustration and impatience are beginning to set in. The people still refusing, they say, are preventing the country from reaching the so-called “herd immunity” rates we need to close the door on the pandemic.

  • The vaccinated are also blaming the unvaccinated for increasing risk to their unvaccinated young children (who aren’t yet eligible to receive the vaccine) and to themselves for breakthrough infections.

Some are advocating for more coercive measures, including mandates before they can return to work and school, but others warn that disincentives for not getting the vaccine will just shut down dialogue and derail outreach efforts.

Without some change, the rest of the summer could be defined by new mandates and the return of pandemic-era measures like mask-wearing:

  • NYC and San Francisco have both announced that city workers will be required to be vaccinated. (The mandate also applies to California statewide, but Gov. Cuomo said the decision will be left to local governments in New York.) The Dept. of Veterans Affairs also became the first federal agency to require the vaccine. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Los Angeles County, New Orleans, Savannah, and Chicago have all reinstated some form of mask mandate amid rising case numbers.

There is some reason for optimism: the new rise in case counts has pushed some who have been on the fence — usually thanks to a persistent family member, work requirements, or a growing sense that the shot was safe — to finally be convinced. (New York Times) How many people ultimately join this group, and how quickly, will determine the course of the coronavirus for the rest of the year or longer.

In other news:

  • The CDC is now recommending that vaccinated people resume wearing masks indoors in areas of the country identified as hotspots for the virus. The agency is also recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools this incoming school year, regardless of vaccination status. (Axios)

  • Biden administration health officials increasingly think that vulnerable populations will need booster shots, saying those ages 65 and older or who are immunocompromised will most likely need a third shot from Pfizer or Moderna. (New York Times)

  • Vaccines are now available through August 13 at mobile pop-up sites at NYC Summer Rising schools, the city’s free summer program for K-12 students. It’s part of the city’s effort to reach 12 to 17-year-olds, who currently have a vaccination rate of 44 percent. (Spectrum News)

  • At the urging of the FDA, Pfizer and Moderna are expanding the size of their clinical trials for children ages 5 to 11 in an effort to more proactively detect any rare side effects before pediatric vaccines can be made available. (New York Times)

The Delta variant has put some return to the office plans on hold for now, and pivoted others. 

  • Twitter announced it will more fully embrace a flexible work schedule — what CHRO Jennifer Christie calls an “asynchronous” approach. (Protocol) She said the company is “embracing communication and collaboration practices that don't require others to be available at the same time or place."

Wherever companies land on the spectrum of flexibility will have real impacts for both their culture and the long-term viability of hybrid-work arrangements. Laszlo Bock, CEO of the workplace transformation company Humu, shared some insights on how to be sure companies don’t botch their returns. Among them:

  • Exhaustion: Plain and simple, people are exhausted — physically, psychologically, emotionally. Therefore, understanding is key. Employers need to have an understanding of what the individual needs and what that team needs are. 

  • Managing expectations: People who are freaked out are not productive. So the parlor trick is for companies to say they're going to relax their standards — and actually doing so. The goal is to give people a little breathing space to get their legs back under them and refocus, which will help return productivity to actual pre-pandemic levels.

  • No one-size-fits-all: Some companies have tried to do remote or hybrid work in the past and almost all concluded it doesn't work. Any company with more than a thousand people has concluded it doesn't work. Companies have not done anything fundamentally different than they did five and 10 and 20 years ago in terms of how they manage teams, and that’s a challenge executives should prepare for now.

  • Setting the tone: The shared experience of getting through the pandemic means a shared weirdness of 'what's next?' that people are looking for guidance on. Employers have to decide and communicate what's important to them as an institution and as a team.

In related reading:

  • Workers Are Taking More Vacation This Year — and Checking in Less Often (Inc.)

  • Return to Office Hits a Snag: Young Resisters (New York Times)

  • The Delta variant doesn't want you back in the office (Axios)

  • ActiveFence, a New York City and Israel-based cybersecurity startup, raised $100 million in Series A and B funding. CRV and Highland Europe led the B while Grove Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners led the A. (TechCrunch)

  • AdTheorent, a New York-based provider of predictive solutions for digital advertising, agreed to go public at an implied $775 million enterprise value via MCAP Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: MACQ), a SPAC sponsored by Monroe Capital. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Bubble, a New York-based visual programming platform, raised $100 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led, and was joined by SignalFire, Neo, BoxGroup, ThirdKind and Betaworks. (TechCrunch)

  • iCapital Network, a New York-based fintech platform for alternative investing, raised $440 million in equity funding at around a $4 billion valuation. Temasek led, and was joined by Owl Rock, MSD Partners, Noah Holdings, Golub Capital, WestCap, Ping An Voyager Partners, Blackstone, UBS, Pivot Investment Partners, BNY Mellon, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Landis, a New York City-based rent-to-own home startup, raised $165 in debt and Series A funding. Sequoia Capital led the round and was joined by investors including  Arrive, Dreamers VC, and Signia Venture Partners. (FinSMEs)

  • Norby, a New York-based creator marketing platform, raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by Gradient Ventures. (TechCrunch)

  • Nym Health, a New York City-based medical coding company, raised $25 million. Addition led the round. (PR Newswire)

  • Endless Frontier Labs is now accepting applications for the 2021-2022 cohort. The nine-month program is seeking early-stage, science, and technology-based startups that are looking to fundraise during the course of the program. Learn more and apply by August 6 here.

  • The New York City Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer is seeking proposals for the NYC[x] Moonshot: Financial Inclusion Challenge, a program to support innovative solutions that address the multifaceted barriers unbanked and underbanked New Yorkers in the Bronx and across New York City face and facilitate building community wealth and sustainable economic opportunities. Interactions during the Challenge may uncover acceleration and scaling or technical prototype development and follow-up support opportunities. Learn more and apply by August 30 here.

  • Queens Public Library’s Job and Business Academy is hiring part-time Digital Literacy Instructors, as well as a full-time Digital Literacy Lead Instructor. Interested applicants should reach out with their resume and/or questions here. 

  • VentureCrushFG (formerly FirstGrowthVC) is accepting applications for its 2021-2022 Pods program. The NYC-based accelerator does not take equity, charge any fees, or require a demo day. Learn more and apply here.

Bryant Park’s much-loved summer movie nights are back, and Vulture has curated a lineup of films — everything from romance to the Muppets to Broadway to those classic New York stories. The series kicks off in late August and runs for five weeks.

(and save the dates for your favorites)!

Any feedback or suggestions of things to add? Get in touch here. Was this digest forwarded to you? Sign up to receive it directly here.