Tech:NYC Digest: June 13

Tech:NYC Digest: June 13

June 13, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Monday, June 13, 2022 

In today’s digest, the city budget gets the Mayor-Council handshake, New York enacts additional abortion protections ahead of Roe ruling, and how to make sure your company’s DEI strategy is LGBTQ-inclusive.

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By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 3,770

    • New positive cases, NYC: 2,281

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 5.1 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 90.8 percent

    • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 77.6 percent

In today’s latest: 

  • Starting today, toddlers will no longer be required to wear masks in daycare and preschool settings, even though the city is still strongly recommending that masks be worn indoors for people of all ages. (New York Times)

  • Mayor Eric Adams and the NYC Council reached a final agreement on a record $101 billion city budget — three weeks early. (New York Daily News)

    • The City Council is expected to vote this evening to approve the budget to fund $5 billion in affordable housing investments, $250 million in earned income tax credits, the expansion of 100,000 Summer Youth Employment internships, and more.

  • Gov. Kathy Hochul today signed a package of bills into law that would provide additional protection to abortion patients and shield providers from out-of-state legal actions. (POLITICO)

  • The Biden administration has dropped the COVID-19 testing requirement for inbound air travelers from abroad, ending one of the longest-running travel restrictions of the pandemic. (CNBC)

  • And one final reminder: today is the last day to apply online for an absentee ballot for the June 28 primary election.

In other reading:

  • How Long Does Immunity Last? Will A Second Illness Be Worse? Some Reinfection Questions, Answered. (New York Times)

  • How COVID is Making the Flu and Other Common Viruses Act in Unfamiliar Ways (Washington Post)

  • Museum Mile Festival Returns In-Person for 2022, Kicking Off at The Met (NBC New York)

Despite the layoffs we’ve heard about in the last few weeks, it’s still a job seeker’s market. And workers are combing through every benefit, perk, and story they hear about company culture to determine their next move.

For LGBTQ+ workers, it’s important that companies have DEI strategies that are truly inclusive and comprehensive, or as Protocol put it, don’t just “change their logos to a rainbow in June and call it a day.”

For Pride Month, Indeed surveyed more than 1,000 LGBTQ+ workers and found the majority — 87 percent — researched their company to ensure it was LGBTQ+ friendly before deciding to apply to a role there.

  • Many (71 percent) looked into the company's social media accounts, and six out of ten (61 percent) said they reached out to current and/or former employees.

  • Over half (45 percent) looked into whether employment benefits were inclusive, and around a third (30 percent) looked into statements made by executive leaders to determine their commitment to inclusivity.

The tech sector is meeting those standards: It consistently takes over business rankings as one of the most LGBTQ-friendly industries.

  • Google, Microsoft, IBM, Accenture, and Apple all ranked among the top ten companies with the highest ratings for LGBTQ+ workers, according to a recent Glassdoor report.

More broadly, it’s a promising trend that companies are making concerted efforts to hire more diverse candidates — including LGBTQ+ candidates. 

  • Job postings that mention inclusivity are becoming commonplace. Among the 8.3 million postings job search site Adzuna analyzed in a recent survey, 31 percent actively promote LGBTQ+ inclusivity within the workplace. Tens of thousands of those postings came from larger tech employers like Amazon and Oracle.

In other reading:

  • How Covid Did Away With the Sick Day (New York Times)

  • Millennials Far More Likely to Quit Jobs Than Gen Z, Bosses Say (Bloomberg)

  • The MBAs Getting Job Offers Before They Step Onto Campus (Wall Street Journal)

  • CapitalRx, a NYC-based medical and pharmacy pricing platform, raised $106 million in Series C funding. B Capital led the round and was joined by General Catalyst, as well as existing investors Transformation Capital and Edison Partners. (Forbes)

  • Closed Loop Partners, a NYC-based investment firm, raised $200 million for a fund focused on businesses that keep packaging, organics, electronics, and apparel out of landfills. (Newswire)

  • Floor, a NYC-based NFT accessibility app, raised $8 million in Series A funding. 6th Man Ventures led the round and was joined by Hannah Grey VC, B Capital, Worklife Ventures, Collab+Currency, Exponent Capital, Eberg, and other angels. (The Block)

  • H1, a NYC-based healthcare data analytics platform, raised $23 million in a Series C extension round. Participating investors include Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Menlo Ventures, Transformation Capital, and Novartis Pharma AG. (Newswire)

  • Magic Spoon, a NYC-based DTC breakfast cereal startup, raised $85 million in Series B funding. HighPost Capital led the round and was joined by Siddhi Capital, Coefficient Capital, Constellation Capital, and Carter Comstock. (TechCrunch)

  • June 14: Virtual: Crypto and the Investing Space, with Archetype venture partner Katherine Wu, Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, and others. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

  • June 15: In-person: Brooklyn Magazine Festival 2022: Tech in my backyard: How innovative companies can be good neighbors, with Brooklyn Bridge Ventures partner Charlie O’Donnell and Community Service Society of New York VP Emerita Torres. Register here.

  • June 16: In-person: Cornell Tech Fest, with Tech:NYC director of Tech Year NYC Bethany Crystal, Lunchbox CEO Nabeel Alamgir, Primary VC principal Sam Toole, and others. Hosted by Cornell Tech. Enter code “technycmem” in the “Admin Use Only” field for 50 percent off tickets. Register here.

  • June 20 – 23: In-person: NFT.NYC 2022, with Snark.art cofounder Andy Alekhin, Slow Ventures partner Clay Robbins, Offchain Labs co-founder Ed Felten, and others. Hosted by NFT.NYC. Register here.

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