Tech:NYC Digest: March 16

Tech:NYC Digest: March 16

March 16, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Wednesday, March 16, 2022 

In today’s digest, majority of Americans now support lifting all COVID restrictions, New York’s baseball teams face restrictions on their home turf, and the risks and rewards of job-hopping. 

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By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 2,072

    • New positive cases, NYC: 876

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.3 percent (+0.1 percent)

  • NYC Hospitalizations: 346 (-17)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 89.3 percent

    • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 75.9 percent

In today’s latest:

  • Americans' health and confidence about life returning to "normal" as mask mandates are abandoned is at record highs, according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. (Axios)

    • 64 percent of survey respondents now favor federal, state, and local governments lifting all COVID-19 restrictions, up 20 percentage points since early February. But three in four say they'd start masking again if infections increase where they live.

    • The poll results come amidst a recent surge in Western Europe, which has left some health experts bracing for another wave in the US. (Washington Post). In France, unvaccinated Americans can now enter the country so long as they show proof of a negative test. (Washington Post)

  • Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Dr. Jay Varma, a top health adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, have called for a plan to encourage New Yorkers to get their booster shots. (New York Times)

    • According to the city’s most recent COVID-19 vaccination data, only 36 percent of New Yorkers have received a booster shot. 

  • Even though the Major League Baseball season is set to kick off next month, unvaccinated players on the Yankees and Mets teams won’t be able to play in New York unless the city’s vaccination mandate rules are changed. (New York Times)

  • After a two-year pandemic-induced hiatus, the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is coming back to Fifth Avenue tomorrow. (Gothamist)

In other reading:

  • How to Time Your Second Booster (The Atlantic)

  • This Doggy Directory shows you all the dog-friendly places in NYC (Time Out New York)

  • Now you can unlock your iPhone with a mask on. Better late than never. (Washington Post)

Tech workers have more reason than ever to change jobs these days. Job-hopping has always been part of the culture in tech, but the current market is creating even more incentives. (Protocol)

It wasn’t long ago that conventional wisdom held that too many brief stints on a resume was a red flag to recruiters, but expectations about how long you should stay at one job are changing.

  • Gen Z is far likelier than older generations to job-hop, changing jobs at a rate 134 percent higher than in 2019. Millennials are switching 24 percent more, and Boomers 4 percent less, according to LinkedIn data.

  • And it doesn’t appear to be slowing down: About 25 percent of Gen Zers say they hope or plan to leave their employers within the next six months. Compare that with 23 percent of millennials, 18 percent of Gen X and just 12 percent of Boomers.

But employers — even in tech — still want to hire candidates who can commit and help scale a team or an organization. The cost alone of hiring a new employee can amount to as much as 20 percent of their annual salary, according to Ideal.

  • “You need enough relationship-building so that you can get things done,” Ed Kraay, an agile transformation coach at Salesforce, said. “If you change your job every year, people look down on that, probably, because you’re not able to really do the things you need to give back.”

Our takeaway: The pandemic and the Great Resignation have been an attractive opportunity for workers to take advantage of the market. But it’s still an open question on when (or if) the hiring spree will settle — especially as we emerge out of the pandemic — and making those moves a habit could still come with risks.

In other reading:

  • People Are Quitting Full-Time Jobs for Contract Work—and Making Six Figures (Wall Street Journal)

  • Microsoft updates Outlook, Teams, and PowerPoint to be hybrid work ready (The Verge)

  • Meet Raycast, the remote control for your work life (Protocol)

  • ConsenSys, a NYC-based Ethereum infrastructure startup, raised $450 million in Series D funding. ParaFi Captal led the round alongside existing investors Third Point, Marshall Wace, True Capital Management and UTA VC. New investors include Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures.(TechCrunch)

  • Gauntlet, a NYC-based startup servicing DAOs and protocols, raised $23.8 million in Series B funding at a $1 billion valuation. Ribbit Capital led the round and was joined by the Paradigm and Polychain. (Bloomberg)

  • inFeedo, a NYC-based employee engagement platform for enterprises, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Jungle Ventures led the round and was joined by Tiger Global, as well as returning investor Bling Capital. (TechCrunch)

  • Nautilus Labs, a NYC-based marine logistics software platform for ocean commerce, raised $34 million in Series B funding. Investors include M12, the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, NSS Advisors, Systemiq Capital, Root Ventures, Quiet Capital, TMV, and Amplifier. (VentureBeat)

Blue Ridge Labs, a program of Robin Hood that supports both for-profit and nonprofit early-stage tech ventures, is accepting applications for its 2022 fellowship program. This year’s four-month program focuses on expanding digital equity for New Yorkers, and selected participants receive stipends and research funding, as well as mentorship and community resources. Learn more and apply by March 24 here.The Transit Tech Lab is accepting applications for its 2022 program. The lab, which supports growth-stage companies with solutions for improving NYC’s public transit system, provides the opportunity to pilot their tools with the MTA and other leading transit agencies. Learn more and apply by March 25 here.Udacity, in partnership with Citi, is accepting applications for its programming and web development scholarship program. The scholarship is open to Black and Latinx individuals in the NYC metro area looking to build their tech skills or begin a career in tech. Learn more and apply by March 28 here.Y Combinator is accepting applications for its Summer 2022 cohort. The program will be all-virtual with optional in-person opportunities, and accepted companies will receive $500K in total investments. Learn more and apply by March 31 here.

Happy Purim to those who celebrate. As we reflect on the almost three million Ukrainian refugees who have fled the crisis, several bakeries around the world are participating in "Hamantashen for Ukraine" this week, donating all profits to support refugees. 

Here in NYC, you can pick your hamantashen up at Russ & Daughters in Manhattan and Moonrise Bakehouse and Peck’s Food in Brooklyn.

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