Tech:NYC Digest: October 28

Tech:NYC Digest: October 28

October 28, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Thursday, October 28, 2021

In today’s digest, city vax mandate protests continue ahead of Friday deadline, Pres. Biden touts pared down $1.75B human infrastructure bill, and a new roadmap to DEI for tech. 

  • 🚨 Last call: Tomorrow is the application deadline for our inaugural NYC Recovery Challenge! If you’re a founder or startup team with an idea for accelerating the city’s recovery, you could win $100K in non-dilutive grants and other business support services. Get your application in here.

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 4,285

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,086  

  • Statewide Fatalities: 27 (-8) 

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.0 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 87.0 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 73.8 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • Tomorrow at 5pm is the deadline for almost all city workers to have at least one dose of the vaccine in order to keep their jobs. But city agencies are bracing for the fallout:

    • A major group of anti-mandate protestors assembled outside Gracie Mansion this morning. (New York Daily News)

    • The FDNY — which is at a 64 percent vaccination rate — is preparing to shutter as many as 20 percent of its fire companies and take ambulances off the streets due to looming worker shortages. (POLITICO)

    • The Dept. of Sanitation — which is at a 67 percent vaccination rate — is already facing slower, less frequent trash pickup service for its shortage. (NBC New York)

  • Gov. Hochul released the Excelsior Pass Blueprint, a new national framework to guide other states and venues to develop and implement similar digital health credentials.

  • After a marathon of intense Senate negotiations, Pres. Biden unveiled a $1.75 trillion blueprint for his budget plan, including new spending on health care, climate investments, education, and immigration reform. Here’s a good rundown of what’s in the plan.

    • The plan represents a significant reduction from its original $3.5 trillion price tag, with some major initiatives like paid family leave and free community college taken out.

  • The MTA plans to launch a “fare capping” pilot next year that would automatically convert single-ride passes to unlimited rides through the new OMNY system, if the rider has paid the equivalent fee over a series of trips. (New York Daily News)

In other reading:

  • Is Moderna Really Better Than Pfizer — Or Is It Just a Higher Dose? (The Atlantic)

  • Five takeaways from the last NYC mayoral debate (New York Times)

  • 35,000 Acrylic Nails Get the Fine Art Treatment in Times Square (New York Times)

It’s no secret that tech has a diversity problem. And while many of those challenges have persisted through the pandemic, there is promising inertia within tech companies to make systemic, actionable commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices at all levels.

  • Paradigm CEO Joelle Emerson says tech companies could do a better job of harnessing their own hiring and retention data to create a more inclusive workplace. (Protocol)

The Action to Catalyze Tech Report (ACT Report) is one new initiative working to move the sector in that direction with more intention.

  • Published today, the report convened a working group of academics, DEI experts, think tanks, and industry leaders to build a rigorous framework that helps CEOs and other tech executives to actually take action.

More than 30 companies (including several Tech:NYC members) — representing more than one million employees — are signed on as founding signatories:

  • Airbnb, DoorDash, Etsy, Google, Justworks, Maven, Ro, Salesforce, Snap, Spotify, Twitter, Uber, Warby Parker, and others have signed on.

The report’s findings come with a set of ten concrete recommendations with guidance on:

  • How to apply a DEI framework not only to hiring and promotion systems, but also to the design of products and services;

  • How to support industry-wide DEI efforts by designing shared reporting standards and goals;

  • How to build your own campaigns to support pathways into tech for underrepresented talent.

The report’s release is being followed up by the first annual Catalyze Tech DEI Innovation Summit, kicking off online Nov. 3 at noon ET. Anyone can register to tune in here.Download the full ACT Report here.

  • Amplify, a New York City-based publisher of curriculum and educational assessment programs, raised $215 million in growth funding. Learn Capital and A-Street Ventures co-led the round and were joined by insider Emerson Collective. (FinSMEs)

  • Attest, a New York City-based market research platform, raised $60 million in Series B funding. NEA led the round and was joined by Kismet. (TechCrunch)

  • Butler Hospitality, a New York City-based hotel services and hospitality provider, raised $32 million in funding. Participation included Shamrock Holdings, Mousse Partners, and Maywic Select Investments. (Newswire)

  • Rowan, a New York City-based ear piercing startup, raised $20 million in Series B funding. VMG Partners led the round and was joined by Thirty Five Ventures, Table Management, Beechwood Capital, Silas Capital, and Goldcrest Capital. (Bloomberg)

  • TIFIN, a New York City-based AI-powered personalized wealth and asset management platform, raised $47 million in Series C funding. Participation included Hamilton Lane, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Morningstar, and Broadridge. (Accesswire)

  • November 3: Virtual: Catalyze Tech DEI Innovation Summit, with working panels and a keynote with Idris Elba. Hosted by Snap. Register here.

  • November 4: Virtual: Frontier Tech Spotlight: Deep Tech Investment, with Seeqc CEO John Levy, Quantum Daily CEO Alex Challans, and Newlab chief product officer Satish Rao. Hosted by Newlab. Register here.

  • November 8: In-person and virtual: TechDay Founders Summit, with The Fund general partner Jenny Fielding, Eniac Ventures co-founder Nihal Mehta, The Muse founder and CEO Kathryn Minshew, and others. Admission is for founders and C-suite executives by short application. Register here.

  • November 10: In-person: 2021 Open Source Strategy Forum, with FDIC chief innovation officer Sultan Meghji, Goldman Sachs co-head of technology John Madsen, and others. Hosted by FINOS and the Linux Foundation. Register for early bird pricing using the code OSSF21NYEARLY here.

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