Tech:NYC Digest: May 24

Tech:NYC Digest: May 24

May 24, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Monday, May 24, 2021Welcome back! In today’s digest, we’re one month away from the NYC primaries, the ranked choice voting tips you need, what the return of the IER means for New York tech, and the Senate Majority Leader moonlights as the Karaoke King.Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

We’re down to the final month of the primary race, and the campaign trail is really heating up. (New York Times) And it’s a crowded one: there are a total of 16 Democratic candidates and three Republicans on the ballot for mayor.

  • That there's a crowded field means the race is very much still up in the air — even if we limit predictions to just the eight candidates considered top contenders, a lot can change between now and Primary Day.

  • Polling released in recent weeks suggests that current Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang are the consistent frontrunners. Their rivals disagree. (New York Times) And for good reason: everything from key, well-timed endorsements, to the homestretch television ad blitz, to a return of the ‘pound the pavement’ organizing we’ve missed during most of the pandemic could change that outlook.  

When we talked to Gothamist & WNYC reporter Liz Kim a couple of weeks ago for our podcast, Talk:NYC, she said the polls we’re seeing are relevant markers of moments in time, but she wouldn’t necessarily make big bets on them:

  • “I called a veteran political consultant and I asked him, ‘how much stock do I place in these polls?’ He said, ‘don’t place a lot of stock in the polls, but you read every single one of them.’”

For more from the leading candidates, if you haven’t checked out the short video interviews the New York Times did, they’re really well done and worth your time.

The RCV variable: Another element comes into play because, for the first time in history, NYC will use ranked choice voting to count the ballots. Instead of choosing only one candidate in each race, voters will be able to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. (New York Times) If one candidate gets more than half the vote, it’s over. But if no candidate wins a majority, the ranked choice system replaces a run-off system to sort out the most preferred candidate. Here’s a helpful explainer on the process, or do a practice run on a mock ballot yourself!

  • Don’t forget the other races: seats for comptroller, four of the five borough presidents, and 35 of the 51 NYC Council seats are open without an incumbent challenger — and they’ll all be decided by RCV, as well. The Public Advocate race is also on the ballot under RCV, leaving only the races for the Manhattan and Brooklyn District Attorneys to be decided without RCV.

What’s in store: there are still two official live debates to come (the next one is this Thursday evening), and some high-profile endorsements are still expected.

  • Once we do get to Primary Day, don’t expect quick results: while unofficial results from in-person voting should be available the evening of June 22, counting absentee ballots (which aren’t due to the Board of Election until June 29), could mean we won’t know the results for up to three weeks after. (NY1) 

And join us this Wednesday at 3pm ET for a briefing session to answer your questions on the RCV process, plus the latest insights from Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max on how it could shape which candidates come out on top.

In other news:

  • NYC will eliminate remote learning for the fall, bringing all public school students back for in-person classes in the new academic year. (New York Times)

  • The latest vaccination incentive: anyone vaccinated between May 24 and 31 at any site will get two free passes to any New York State Park. (PIX11) And Mayor de Blasio is announcing new rewards each week through July — including tickets to Broadway and the Governors Ball — with winners named the following Monday. (New York Daily News) 

  • Lastly, it might be time to break up your pandemic pod. (New York Times)

Amazon, Accenture, Google, Twitter, and more of the city’s largest tech employers filed an amicus brief in support of immigration policies that allow the spouses of H-1B visa holders the right to work legally in the US. (CNBC) See the full brief here.

  • The filing comes on top of news that Pres. Biden will fully restore the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), a program set up under the Obama administration to attract and support foreign-born entrepreneurs working in the US. (Wall Street Journal)

Tech:NYC enthusiastically threw support behind the IER when it was first created, and we doubled down on that support in 2018 when the Trump administration moved to roll back the program. An often-cited stat is that more than half of the US’s billion dollar startups have an immigrant founder. (Forbes) 

  • Our take: The latest data we have show that 43 percent of New York’s tech workforce is foreign-born. New York is a global tech hub because it's a global city, and if the US wants to continue to be a global leader in tech innovation, we have to welcome the people who want to build and grow their companies here.

The reinstatement of the IER is welcome news: once it’s implemented, an estimated 3,000 foreign entrepreneurs will qualify per year, creating another 100,000 tech jobs over the next decade. (Axios)

In Tech:NYC’s latest research on 2021 tech hiring trends, conducted in partnership with Accenture, more than half of the C-suite executives we surveyed plan to increase the number of tech hires in 2021 by as much as 20 percent compared to the year before. Has your company onboarded new team members this month? (This is a recurring question, responses help Tech:NYC track trends over time.)

  • *|SURVEY: Yes, new employees started this month|*

  • *|SURVEY: Not yet but there are open roles looking to be filled|*

  • *|SURVEY: No|*

  • Leif, a New York-based education access company, raised more than $60 million from LL Funds and Insita Group. (Axios)

  • Lili, a NYC-based no-fee, mobile banking platform for freelancers, has raised $55 million in a Series B funding. Group 11 led the round and was joined by Target Global and AltaIR. (TechCrunch)

  • SevenFifty, a NYC-based provider of web-based and mobile technology solutions for the alcoholic beverage industry, raised $23 million in new funding. Level Equity led the round. (Crunchbase News)

  • Vision/Capital/People, a venture capital firm launched by former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and Jet founder Marc Lore, has launched with an initial $50 million, with the plan to raise $300 million to $500 million. (CNBC)

  • May 26: Virtual: A briefing on Ranked Choice Voting in the NYC primary election, with Rank the Vote NYC and Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max. Hosted by Tech:NYC. Register here.

  • June 1 – 3: Virtual: URBAN-X Summit, with Cohort 09 companies, including OONEE CEO Shabazz Stuart, Dorothy CEO Arianna Armelli, Singularity CEO Wenbo Shi, and others. Hosted by URBAN-X and Canary Media. Register here.

  • June 3: Virtual: VC Voices: A Conversation with Tribeca Venture Partners co-founder and managing partner Brian Hirsch. Hosted by Betaworks Studios. Register here.

  • June 9: Virtual: Machines + Media 2021: Facing the Future, with Tech:NYC founder and executive director Julie Samuels, Primary Venture Partners co-founder Ben Sun, NYCEDC Senior Vice President of Tech Karen Bhatia, and more. Hosted by NYC Media Lab and Bloomberg. Register here.

After crashing a sidewalk band set in Park Slope last weekend, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer returned with an encore performance of his greatest karaoke hits. Nailed it, if you ask us.

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