Tech:NYC Digest: May 1

Tech:NYC Digest: May 1

May 01, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Monday, May 1, 2023

In today’s digest, what’s next for startup banking, NYC’s newest Chinatown, and the new hiring numbers putting New York toe-to-toe with the Bay Area.

  • Programming note: The digest will take a brief (one-day) hiatus tomorrow while the Tech:NYC team spends the day in Albany! We’re commuting up with a cohort of our member companies to meet with elected officials and connect on ways to further support the tech sector and economic growth more broadly. We’ll get you all the updates when we return to your inbox on Wednesday! 

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  • First Republic Bank was seized by the FDIC and sold to JPMorgan Chase, making it the second-largest bank by assets to fail in US history and the third major bank failure in eight weeks. (New York Times)

    • The bank’s 84 branches (including 12 in NYC) reopened today as Chase branches, and JPMorgan will assume all of First Republic's $92 billion in deposits, even the ones that weren't insured.

  • The NYC Ferry surpassed one million riders for the first time in the first quarter of this year. (amNewYork) The most popular route: the East River crossing between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

    • NYC airports also hit all-time record first-quarter passenger traffic with 32 million travelers. (Crain’s New York)

  • Any Met Gala red carpet fans out there? Here’s everything you need to know ahead of following it all online tonight.

In other reading:

  • Will COVID’s Spring Lull Last? (The Atlantic)

  • Our COVID Data Project is Over, but the Need for Timely Data Is Not (New York Times)

  • Another Chinatown is Growing in Manhattan (Eater NY)

The Bay Area and NYC have long ranked first and second globally as the strongest tech hubs, and now post-pandemic, it’s more neck-and-neck than ever before.

What’s new: 49,068 jobs at NYC startups were posted between January 2022 and March 2023, just 131 fewer roles than those in the Bay Area (49,217) during the same time, according to new data from VC firm NGP Capital. Among other topline stats:

  • The two hubs together represent more than half of job openings across the 11 analyzed US cities.

  • NYC logged the highest share of fintech job openings (17% compared to the Bay Area’s 12%).

  • Seed-stage hiring is holding the most steady, at 86% YoY (March 2023 compared to March 2022).

The bigger picture: The data finds that all key business functions — operations, sales, and engineering — were impacted very similarly, validating predictions that slowdowns in startup job growth have been driven by a more universal shift towards capital efficiency.

  • But NGP Capital partner Upal Basu told Crain’s New York he sees reason for optimism particularly in New York: “San Francisco is over-indexed on tech. New York City has [other sectors such as] government, media and culture, which has balanced it. It’s made New York a more attractive city where venture capitalists and young people want to be.”

Our take: The speed with which NYC has reached closer parity with the West Coast is another proof point for why tech jobs keep growing here. We say it a lot at Tech:NYC: tech companies want to be where the best talent is, and the best talent wants to be in New York.

(Speaking of tech jobs: Have you visited our jobs board recently? More than 4,700 roles at Tech:NYC member companies are currently open!)

In other reading:

  • Microsoft’s chief scientific officer doesn’t think a 6 month pause will fix AI — but he has some ideas for how to safeguard it (Fortune)

  • Porter Braswell, co-founder of NYC-based HR tech platform Jopwell: The top 5 things I’ve learned from being a Black founder (Fast Company)

  • Chiefy, a NYC-based provider of communications tools for surgical teams, raised $4.2 million in seed funding. LionBird led the round and was joined by Nina Capital and Emerge Ventures.

  • Pinecone, the NYC-based vector database company providing long-term memory for AI, raised $100 million in Series B funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by ICONIQ Growth, as well as insiders Menlo Ventures and Wing Venture Capital.

  • May 3: In-person: How to Validate Your MVP, with Interplay partner Phuong Ireland, Work-Bench investor Daniel Chesley, and Innovatemap CEO Mike Reynolds. Hosted by Innovatemap. Register here.

  • May 3: In-person: The State of AI in NYC, with Bloomberg head of ML Gideon Mann, Every & Lex CEO Dan Shipper, Hearth CEO Ashe Magalhaes, and Costanoa Ventures investor Madison Hawkinson. Hosted by New York AI and Company Ventures. Register here.

  • May 10: In-person: Climate Change: Politics, Policy, and Opportunity in New York, with Spring Street Climate Fund president John Raskin. Hosted by Betaworks. Register here.

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