Tech:NYC Digest: March 5

Tech:NYC Digest: March 5

March 07, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Monday, March 7, 2022 

In today’s digest, it’s day one of a more mandate-less NYC, how to order more at-home test kits from the US government, and revamping office perks for the new world of work.

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By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 1,013

    • New positive cases, NYC: 381

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.0 percent (-0.1 percent)

  • NYC Hospitalizations: 518 (+6)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 89.1 percent

    • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 75.7 percent

In today’s latest:

  • Restaurant and bar owners today are cheering the lifting of the vaccination mandate to enter their establishments. (New York Times) Patrons are no longer required to show proof of vaccination, and restaurant staff are no longer required to screen for it.

    • Restaurant owners largely expressed relief from the burden of checking vaccine cards, but some New Yorkers — including some restaurant workers — have said they’ll be more reluctant to dine indoors without the mandate in place.

    • However, businesses still have complete discretion to continue to enforce the mandate for their establishment — and some will — so it’s a good idea to keep your vaccine card on you anyways.

    • Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago are also loosening restrictions on similar timelines. (Associated Press)

  • Masks are also now optional indoors for vaccine-eligible K-12 public school students and staff. (New York Times)

    • Those who would like to continue wearing masks may do so, a decision that garnered approval from the city’s teachers union. (NBC New York)

  • Today’s changes only apply to public schools and Key to NYC-applicable businesses. All private sector employees of any size in NYC are still required to be fully vaccinated to go into the office or workplace. (Bloomberg)

  • Officials are closely watching an Omicron subvariant, BA.2. New data from the state Dept. of Health indicates it is doubling in proportion every two weeks and spreading about 30 percent faster than the original Omicron variant. (Gothamist)

  • Starting today, Americans can order four additional free at-home COVID-19 tests supplied by the US government. Tests can be ordered online here.

In other reading:

  • What Will Our Covid Future Be Like? Here Are Two Signs to Look Out For. (New York Times)

  • The Best Time to Use Your Airline Miles? Now (New York Times)

  • The NYC Squirrel Census is back with new results — and a toll-free number (Gothamist)

In NYC, with various business mandates being lifted today, it really feels like Reopening Week has finally arrived! That applies to offices too:

  • Tech:NYC has heard from some startups in our network that, starting this week, they’re requiring employees to work in-person for a minimum of two or three days.

  • Those plans come as some of the city’s largest tech employers — Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta — announced similar RTO policies in NYC and other US offices over the next month.

What’s next: Now that reopening plans are actually moving forward, executives are under pressure to ensure employees are coming back to an office they actually want to use. (Protocol)

What it means: Perks, perks, and more perks.

  • Just ahead of its RTO announcement, Google assured employees it was restoring many of the amenities its campuses are known for, like free breakfast and lunch meals and full access to informal spaces and massage chairs. (CNBC)

  • Other tech employers like Dropbox, which is reconfiguring its offices into “studios,” are hoping their employees will be encouraged by revamped spaces that place more emphasis on team- and culture-building than workstations. (Wall Street Journal)

A recent trend report from job site Joblist also found 80 percent of job seekers believe employers should re-evaluate their benefits offerings, and 67 percent said benefits are more important to them now than pre-pandemic.

What to look out for: It’s not only about offering plush amenities, but knowing which ones to offer. With only part of the workforce in the office on any given day, employers will be responsible for ensuring those offerings are (1) being applied equally across teams, and (2) are in the interest of what employees really need in the new world of work.

In other reading:

  • Move fast and break your company: Lessons from the tech darlings of the pandemic (Protocol)

  • The old way of interviewing for jobs is dead. Here’s how to play by the new rules (Fast Company)

  • How introverts can prepare emotionally for offices reopening (Fast Company)

  • Popchew, a NYC-based platform for creators to launch and grow food brands, raised $3.6 million in seed funding. Long Journey Ventures led the round and was joined by Anti Fund, Flybridge, WndrCo, and others. (TechCrunch)

  • VTS, a NYC-based software platform for commercial real estate, raised $150 million in debt financing. The round was led by CIBC Innovation Banking. (Businesswire)

  • March 8: Virtual: March Fundraising Workshop, with On Deck Fractional COO Eric Friedman. Hosted by Silicon Valley Bank. Register here.

  • March 9: Virtual: The Affordability Crisis, with White House Council of Economic Advisors member Heather Boushey and former US Dept. of Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

  • March 9: Virtual: Beyond Decentralization: Designing for Equity, Democracy, and Human Rights in Web3, with Reach Capital partner Jomayra Herrera, Metalabel founding members Austin Robey, and Polaris CTO Anjana Rajan. Hosted by Betaworks Studios. Register here.

  • March 10: In-person: NYC Recovery Challenge Closing Ceremony, with the founders of the Challenge’s inaugural cohort, plus city and industry leaders. Hosted by Tech:NYC, Google for Startups, and Cornell Tech. Register here.

  • March 21: Virtual: #newtovc: Developing Your Fund Thesis, with Union Square Ventures partner Brad Burnham and Brooklyn Bridge Ventures founder Charlie O’Donnell. Hosted by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Register here.

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