Tech:NYC Digest: October 4

Tech:NYC Digest: October 4

October 04, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Monday, October 4, 2021

In today’s digest, NYC DOE vax rate jumps due to mandate, J&J to ask FDA for booster approval, our roundup of recent RTO forecasts, and a funding recap of the last year of Companies to Watch.

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 2,896

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,062

  • Statewide Fatalities: 24

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.3 percent

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 84.7 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 71.8 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • Even as the US reached 700,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, the number of new daily cases has dropped 35 percent in the past month. (New York Times)

    • That’s a positive reaction to increasing vaccination rates, but the climbing death rate reflects the simultaneous reality that a significant percentage of the country remains unvaccinated.

    • The latest COVID-19 deaths are now increasingly concentrated among younger people — every age group under 55 saw its highest death toll of the pandemic this August. (New York Times)

  • Today is the first day NYC public school teachers and staff had to have at least one dose of the vaccine to enter the classroom.

    • The mandate seems to have worked: more than 18,000 shots were given to NYC school employees in the last ten days, and the Dept. of Education’s vaccination rate jumped to 97 percent as of this morning. (New York Post)

    • Fewer than 4,000 school employees are now unvaccinated, but that means about 3,700 substitute teachers are needed to fill in for the unvaccinated teachers. (ABC New York)

  • Johnson & Johnson will ask federal regulators early this week to authorize a booster shot of its coronavirus vaccine. Pfizer’s vaccine is already authorized and Moderna’s booster will hear a decision on approval this month. (New York Times)

  • Newer variants of the coronavirus like Alpha and Delta are highly contagious, infecting far more people than the original virus. Two new studies offer a possible explanation: the virus is evolving to spread more efficiently through the air. (New York Times)

In other reading:

  • Does My Mask Protect Me if Nobody Else Is Wearing One? (New York Times)

  • Many are searching for vaccine mandate loopholes. These are the people trying to stop them. (Washington Post)

  • This Is the OMNY Card, and You Might Be Able to Buy One Today (New York Magazine)

Here’s a roundup of the latest return-to-office timelines we’ve heard as we start the fall season:

  • Microsoft scrapped plans to fully reopen offices in early October, saying it can no longer give a date for returning to work because the pandemic is too unpredictable. The company will give employees a one-month warning on a return deadline. (CNBC)

  • PwC told Reuters last Thursday it will allow all 40,000 US client services employees to work virtually and live anywhere they want in perpetuity, making it one of the biggest employers to embrace permanent remote work. (Reuters)

  • American Express has again delayed its plans for returning US workers to the office. The company set a new target of Jan. 24 at the earliest. The New York-based company said its offices in the US will remain open for workers who want to come in or who can’t effectively work from home. (Bloomberg)

  • Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a recent interview he expects 50 to 60 percent of employees to work from home even after the pandemic. (CNBC)

  • Wells Fargo joined many other large tech and finance firms to push its return-to-office date back to next year. The bank’s new target date is Jan. 10. (Bloomberg)

In other reading:

  • Tech Execs Need New Titles For The Hybrid Workplace (Protocol)

  • The March Back to Office Heads in Sharply Different Directions (Bloomberg)

  • How the most innovative companies excel at work-life balance (Washington Post)

Instead of listing new venture deals today, we wanted to use this section to celebrate some that we’ve already shared here — and others we hope to share soon!

Tech:NYC’s Companies to Watch series is a monthly feature of early-stage New York startups on the rise. These companies tell compelling founder stories, fill a real market need, and are set up to demonstrate accelerated growth.

  • We’ve profiled 40+ founders since the pandemic began — a few of which launched their companies during the pandemic — and continued to track their progress since we hit publish on each.

So here’s a roundup of some of those updates:

At no surprise, healthtech has done exceptionally well:

With people spending more time at home, proptech and infrastructure startups have taken on new importance:

  • BlocPower (CTW February 2020) raised a $63MM Series A to expand its city energy projects nationwide.

  • Realm (CTW March 2021), just five months after closing their seed round, raised a $12MM Series A. The term sheet came just 48 hours after meeting with what became its investor.

City life has been reimagined, and several startups have jumped in to help:

Learn more about our most recent Companies to Watch in our short 2021 Year in Review post here.

  • October 6: In-person: 2021 Propelify Innovation Festival, with Tech:NYC founder and executive director Julie Samuels, Capsule founder and CEO Eric Kinariwala, Boxed CEO Chieh Huang, Bowery Farming founder and CEO Irving Fain, and others. Hosted by TechUnited:NJ. Register here.

  • October 6: Virtual: What It’s Like to Exit: Getting Bought, with former Chartbeat and Scroll CEO and Betaworks CEO John Borthwick. Hosted by Betaworks. Register here.

  • October 6: Virtual: The Future of New York City, with Brooklyn Borough President (and Democratic nominee for Mayor) Eric Adams. Hosted by Savills. Register here.

  • October 7: Virtual: Industry Needs in Manhattan, with ABNY CEO Melva Miller, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce CEO Jessica Walker, and others. Hosted by NYCETC. Register here.

  • October 12: Virtual: Early-stage Fundraising Workshop, with Tribeca Venture Partners co-founder and managing partner Brian Hirsch. Hosted by Tribeca Venture Partners and Silicon Valley Bank. Register here.

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