Tech:NYC Digest: July 6

Tech:NYC Digest: July 6

July 06, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed the long weekend. In today’s digest, we’re waiting on pins and needles for the new mayoral primary tally, company-wide vacations could be the future of PTO, and essential workers will get a parade down the Canyon of Heroes tomorrow.

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New Yorkers are on the edge of their seats awaiting the next ranked choice voting tally from the Board of Elections — the new tabulations will add 125,000 absentee ballots to the in-person results already released, all but confirming the winner in the race for mayor and other local elections. (New York Times)

Brunch turned into dinner: The BOE tweeted earlier that it would have today’s results much closer to a “brunch special” than “club hours.” But brunch hours came and went, and it now says we can expect results by 7:30pm ET. There is no lack of hot brunch takes over on Twitter (see here, here, and here), but our brunch etiquette lesson #1: don’t make a reservation you know you can’t keep.

With Eric Adams ahead of Kathryn Garcia by about 15,000 votes, and Maya Wiley fewer than 400 votes behind her, the absentee ballots could be the deciding batch of votes for the Democratic nominee heading into the general election in November. 

We’ll be sure to get you more updates (😰) when they come.

Here’s a roundup of updates from the long weekend:

  • New York’s coronavirus positivity rate has ticked up slightly over the past few weeks to 0.76 percent — the highest in at least a month — amid heightened concern about the highly contagious delta variant taking hold in the state. (New York Daily News)

    • Despite the positivity rate increase, most other coronavirus statistics in New York are trending in the right direction. Only two coronavirus deaths were reported statewide Monday, and the number of New Yorkers hospitalized with COVID-19 dropped to 330.

  • The city that never sleeps could live up to its name under a new proposal to establish 24-hour entertainment districts where revelers can party all night. The city’s Office of Nightlife is recommending that officials identify areas with low residential density “where a limited 24-hour program might be tested.” (Associated Press)

  • Today, Gov. Cuomo issued an executive order declaring gun violence a “state emergency” that treats it as a public health crisis. (NBC New York) The order will allow the state to expedite resources to address the crisis, including $140 million in new funding for jobs programs and other prevention services. He also signed two bills that permit New Yorkers to sue gun manufacturers for shootings and bar people with active warrants from buying firearms in the state. (amNY)

  • And the 100 millionth OMNY payment (contactless fare system) happened today since the program launched in May 2019. (Staten Island Advance)

A transition back to the office isn’t the only thing on executives’ to-do lists this summer: after more than 16 months working remotely through a pandemic, companies are scrambling to figure out how to address worker burnout.

  •  An Indeed poll found more than two-thirds of workers believe burnout has worsened during the pandemic, and we’ve seen it show up in the job quit rate, which is at its highest in decades. (Axios)

One solution: company-wide vacation days. (Axios) Employers are giving the same set of days or week off — separate from allotted personal PTO — and finding it’s a lot easier for employees to unplug if their managers and peers are doing it at the same time.

  • Mailchimp and Hootsuite are two companies that extended the long holiday weekend to give their teams this full week off.

  • LinkedIn gave most employees a week off in April as part of its “LiftUp!” program, and Bumble gave its entire staff "a paid, fully offline" vacation in late June. (Fortune)

In a post-pandemic environment where hybrid work setups, flexible schedule opportunities, and more robust wellness and mental health resources are the new worker priorities, employers can't afford to slack when it comes to benefits. Having strong structures in place to support time off — real time off — is no longer a ‘nice to have’: it’s a talent retention imperative. (Insider)

Of course, for some businesses, a full shutdown for a week isn’t feasible. For those companies, synchronized time off is worth a try, so even if the whole firm isn’t on vacation, pods of teams and managers are off at the same time on a rotating schedule.

  • LinkedIn and Mozilla have gone this route, maintaining a small staff to keep things running during the week off, and allowing those people to schedule their own equivalent time off later on. (Quartz)

Related reading:

  • Workers are suddenly feeling happiness and angst; frustration and relief. Sometimes all at once. (Washington Post)

  • Work at Home or the Office? Either Way, There’s a Start-up for That. (New York Times)

  • At Sweetgreen, Seeing the Future of Work in a Desk Salad (New York Times)

  • Articulate, a NYC-based SaaS platform for building online training tools for workforces, has raised $1.5B in what the company is calling a Series A funding from investors that include General Atlantic, ICONIQ Growth, and Blackstone Accelerates Growth. (TechCrunch)

  • Community Gaming, a blockchain-based e-sports tournament management platform, raised $2.3 million in seed funding. Investors include Hashed, Multicoin Capital, CoinFund, Thirty Five Ventures, Animoca Brands, ConsenSys, Play Ventures, 1kx, Kevin Chou, Work Play Ventures, Warburg Serres Investments, Dapper Labs, Gen.G Esports, and WhaleShark. (Esports Insider)

  • Viam, a robotics startup focused on building the infrastructure to make robots more ubiquitous, has raised $12 million in seed funding from investors including Union Square Ventures. (Viam)

  • Wagmo, the pet wellness and insurance startup, raised $12.5 in Series A funding. Revolution Ventures led, with participation from Female Founders Fund, Clocktower Technology Ventures, and Vestigo Ventures. Angels, including Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jim Grube, Marilyn Hirsch, David Ronick, and Michael Akkerman, also participated in the round. (TechCrunch)

  • July 8: Virtual: How to Pitch to VCs and Angel Investors, with New York Angels founder David S. Rose, Bread and Butter Ventures head of platform Stephanie Rich, AI Ventures managing partner Callum Bir, and others. Hosted by DownToDash. Register here.

  • July 12 – 15: Virtual: Tech for Social Impact Summit, with Stitch Fix chief people and culture officer Jevan Soo Lenox, Hello Alice CEO Carolyn Rodz, and others. Hosted by PowerToFly. Register here.

  • July 13: Virtual: Redefining Industries with the Power of 5G, with Newlab 5G Studio Cohort 2 companies Easy Aerial, EVPassport, and others. Hosted by Newlab. Register here.

The Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show was the biggest in New York City history, with more than 65,000 fireworks deployed Sunday evening. For New Yorkers, it felt like more than a celebration of America’s Independence — it showed off our hard fought recovery. A ticker-tape parade will be held tomorrow along the Canyon of Heroes honoring the essential workers who got us through the pandemic. (If you plan to watch along the parade route, be sure to bring some water and stay cool out there.)

Missed the fireworks? Gothamist has some great photos

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