Tech:NYC Digest: October 19

Tech:NYC Digest: October 19

October 19, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

In today’s digest, ways to support migrants arriving in NYC, office occupancy climbs to its highest rate yet, and how New York is creating a diverse tech talent pipeline beyond the pandemic.

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  • The complex of tents built on Randall’s Island to temporarily shelter migrants being bused into the city by southern border states began accepting its first arrivals today. (Gothamist) A new homeless shelter intake center also recently opened specifically for asylum seekers.

    • Relatedly: here are some ideas for where to donate diapers, shoes, and other supplies to help the community organizations supporting NYC migrants.

  • Children five years of age and older are eligible to receive the new bivalent COVID-19 booster shot beginning today in New York. (NY1) 

  • Offices in New York and other big US cities last week filled to their highest levels since the pandemic hit, but occupancy still hasn’t surpassed 50% in most places. In Manhattan, office buildings were 48% full last week. (Bloomberg)

  • The city will distribute 10,000 easier-to-read COVID-19 at-home test kits to visually-impaired New Yorkers. The at-home test kits utilize test components that communicate with a user’s smartphone to give an electronic text readout of their result. (Staten Island Advance)

In other reading:

  • Hey, New Yorkers: Meet Your Neighborhood’s New Congressional District (New York Times)

  • Can $50 Million Make a Dull Brooklyn Office Park Cool? (New York Times)

  • Ten Sit-Down NYC Restaurants for Celebrating Diwali with Family and Friends (Eater NY)

Today, Google announced a new $1 million commitment to the NYC Employment & Training Coalition, the largest city-based workforce development association in the country.

  • The award is focused on New Yorkers just beginning their careers or considering a career change into tech by helping them access the education and skills they need to sustain those careers.

  • It also includes funding reserved for other training organizations focused on the technology opportunity gap and closing the digital divide to receive re-grants in support of their own work.

The commitment comes at a time when tech was one of the only sectors to grow through the pandemic: Tech:NYC’s own Innovation Indicators research found that, since 2021, the tech sector has accounted for 24% of the city’s entire private sector job growth.

  • During the pandemic’s peak, while overall private sector employment declined 5.3%, tech logged an 8.7% increase in jobs.

  • A September 2022 report from NYCETC found that the tech sector also comprises the highest percentage of job training programs in the city.

What’s next: Study after study has confirmed that tech has become the city’s most reliable source of new well-paying jobs. But even as demand for tech talent grows, too few of those jobs are going to low-income New Yorkers and those from communities of color.

  • While NYC’s tech workforce is more diverse than the other two leading US tech hubs combined (20.8% of New York tech workers are Black or Hispanic, compared to 8.5% in San Francisco and 9.7% in Boston), it still has a ways to go until it’s reflective of NYC’s overall population.

  • “As tech jobs and businesses increase, we must commit to building the infrastructure and committing to the educational opportunities necessary to create accessible and sustainable pipelines to the industry,” said Greg Morris, CEO for NYCETC. “By eliminating roadblocks that prevent access, and making the investments needed to achieve equity, we will grow a fairer economy and leave no New Yorker behind.”

In other reading:

  • The mistakes founders make pitching VCs in a downturn (Protocol)

  • Remote work may have fueled a baby boom among US women (Axios)

  • ‘Should I Put More Effort Into Making Friends at Work?’ (New York Magazine)

  • Adonis, a NYC-based medical billing startup, raised $5.6 million in seed funding. Bling Capital led the round and was joined by Max Ventures, Homebrew, Soma Capital, and Coalition Operators. (Forbes)

  • Digitalis Ventures, a NYC-based health care and life sciences VC firm, raised $300m for its Fund IV. (Wall Street Journal)

  • October 21: In-person: Future Ready 2022: the 9th Annual Silicon Harlem Annual Conference, with Tech:NYC executive director Jason Myles Clark, NYC CTO Matt Fraser, Transit Wireless CEO Melinda White, and others. Hosted by Silicon Harlem and the C-Better Foundation. Register here.

  • October 24 – 25: In-person: SCNY Urban Tech Summit, with Tech:NYC executive director Jason Myles Clark, NYC Chief Climate Officer Louise Yeung, JustAir co-founder and CEO Darren Riley, and others. Hosted by Cornell Tech. Register here.

  • October 25: In-person: Your First Venture Round: Advice & Insights for Founders, with BBG Ventures managing partner Susan Lyne, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures partner Charlie O’Donnell, and m]x[v Capital partner Mark Ghermezian. Hosted by Stacklist. Register here.

  • October 27: Virtual: It’s not privacy vs. security anymore, with GitHub deputy chief security officer Jacob DePriest, Rocket Companies CISO Chris Burrows. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • October 27: In-person: AWS Startup Crowds NYC with Vetty CTO Bejoy John, Branch Insurance CTO Joe Emison, Michael Guarino Plural founder, Teleskope CEO Lizzy Nammour, Inspired Capital investor Claire Pan, and more. Hosted by AWS Startups. Register here.

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