Tech:NYC Digest: May 18

Tech:NYC Digest: May 18

May 18, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Wednesday, May 18, 2022 

In today’s digest, White House relaunches COVID-19 briefings amid increase in cases, Gov. Hochul announces new gun safety measures, and the tech companies using internships programs to outrun the tight labor market. 

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By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 10,320  

    • New positive cases, NYC: 4,851 

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 5.2 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 90.4 percent

    • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 77.2 percent

In today’s latest:

  • The highly contagious, new Omicron subvariant currently spreading now accounts for almost 80 percent of all new cases, according to New York health officials. (NBC New York)

    • Similar spikes are happening across the country, where CDC officials say a third of people nationwide live in areas with virus levels high enough to consider masking indoors. (New York Times) The White House today brought back its COVID-19 briefings for the first time in six weeks.

  • And yet: One in three Americans now say they believe the pandemic is over and are more concerned about being inconvenienced by safety restrictions than getting sick, according to the latest Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. (Axios)

  • In response to last weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced new measures to tighten the state’s gun control restrictions, including launching a new domestic terrorism unit to track extremist threats on social media. (Buffalo News)

  • Today is the last day to provide a public comment on the newly redrawn congressional and state Senate district lines. Here’s the latest, plus how to provide feedback. 

  • Lastly, special edition The Notorious B.I.G. MetroCard, anyone?

In other reading:

  • How Often Can You Be Infected With the Coronavirus? (New York Times)

  • The COVID Hospitalization Numbers We’re Still Missing (The Atlantic)

  • Fran Drescher's favorite NYC restaurants, museums, and more (Time Out NY)

In the tightest labor market in decades, the race to attract and retain talent has now reached beyond full-time hires to the interns. (Bloomberg)

  • Companies are expected to hire 22.6 percent more interns during the 2021-22 academic year than the previous year, a turnaround from 2020-21, according to a recent report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

  • Those rates are even higher in the finance and tech industries, which saw a 31 percent and 138 percent(!) increase in intern hiring, respectively.

  • Recruiting across the board has become more difficult than ever: The number of job opportunities reached an all-time high in March, with nearly two vacant positions for every unemployed person.

But more intern roles have attracted more applications: Take Goldman Sachs, for example, where a record 236,000 people globally applied to its competitive internship program. Other tech and finance firms have also reported increases in the number of applicants.

  • Tech and finance also have some of the greatest conversion rates of internships to full-time positions, at 56 percent compared to 52 percent overall. 

Tech companies are pulling out the stops to stand out: Executives are prioritizing these programs as longer-term pipelines for entry-level talent, and they’re offering more compensation and perks to demonstrate that.

  • Tech companies have shown a significant increase in intern pay this year. Roblox is now offering interns almost $10,000 in median monthly pay. 

  • Out of the top ten highest paying internships recently ranked by Glassdoor, nine of them are in tech. (CNBC)

And ICYMI, one related plug: Tech:NYC is ramping up a new program called Tech Year NYC, where we’re working with dozens of NYC tech companies, community groups, and the Mayor's Office to offer paid internships and other skills-building opportunities that bridge the gap between local emerging talent and NYC’s tech sector. If you think your company might be interested in joining the program, we’d love to connect with you.

In other reading:

  • The graduates are coming: What Gen Z expects out of work (Protocol)

  • Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: ‘The office as we know it is over’ (Washington Post)

  • Confessions of Your Company’s Chief Happiness Officer (Wall Street Journal)

  • Column Tax, a NYC-based personal income tax software company, raised $21.7 million in Series A funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Felicis, Not Boring, Core Innovation Capital, and South Park Commons. (Forbes)

  • HowGood, a New York-based sustainability data SaaS for food and personal care products, raised $12.5 million in Series B funding. Titan Grove led the round. (VentureBeat)

  • Medallion, a NYC-based web3 company connecting musicians and their fans, raised $9.15 million in seed funding. The Chernin Group led the round and a group of angels. (Medallion)

  • Parcl, a NYC-based blockchain real estate investing platform, raised $7.5 million in venture funding. Participating investors include Fifth Wall, JAWS, IA Capital, Eberg Capital, Big Brain Holdings, and Santiago Santos. (Newswire)

  • Unit, a NYC-based banking-as-a-service fintech startup, raised $100 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by Accel, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Moving Capital, and Stepstone. (TechCrunch)

  • Very Good Ventures, a NYC-based Flutter app development consultancy, raised $3 million in Series A funding. Celesta Capital led the round. (Newswire)

Cela, in partnership with Firefly Innovations and CUNY’s Public Health Innovation Accelerator, is offering office hours that match healthtech founders with 1:1 mentorship sessions with accelerators from its network. Learn more and apply by May 26 here.Justworks is accepting applications for grants to organizations supporting underrepresented founders. The program awards five grants of $50,000 each to 501(c)(3) organizations supporting entrepreneurs of early-stage businesses through education, technical assistance, capital, or other resources. Learn more and apply by May 27 here.NYSERDA, in partnership with Onboard and others, is accepting proposals for its Real Time Energy Management (RTEM) Hackathon. The program is awarding more than $50,000 for novel use cases accelerating electrification and decarbonization of New York State commercial and multi-family buildings. Sign up by May 23 and submit your proposal by May 31 here.Newlab, in collaboration with NYCEDC and ConEdison, is seeking applicants for the next cohort of its Resilient Energy Studio. Early-stage hardware and software companies with energy storage concepts will get the opportunity to test their technologies in real-world urban environments. Learn more and apply by June 1 here.Antler, a global early-stage VC, is accepting applications for its summer 2022 New York cohort. Following the six-week, in-person residency, founders will have the opportunity to pitch Antler’s investment committee for $150,000 in pre-seed funding. Learn more and apply here.The Black Ambition Prize, a fund created by Pharrell Williams, extended its deadline for its next awards cycle. Black and Latinx entrepreneurs with businesses in consumer, healthcare, web3, and media/entertainment are invited to apply for $1 million and access to a network of mentors. Learn more and apply by June 20 here.Andreessen Horowitz is accepting applications for its a16z START Program. The program is open to founders in the earliest stages of company formation in fintech, consumer, enterprise, gaming, and other verticals. The program invests up to $1 million and provides a network of other resources and support. Learn more and apply here.

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