Tech:NYC Digest: September 23

Tech:NYC Digest: September 23

September 23, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Thursday, September 23, 2021

In today’s digest, new hubs to track breakthrough and variant cases are live, first round of Pfizer boosters get FDA approval, and how green card backlogs threaten the US tech workforce.

  • ⛈ Also, a friendly (flash flood) warning: a lot of rain is expected tonight. Stay dry out there!

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 4,184

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,520

  • Statewide Fatalities: 39 (+9)

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.8 percent (-0.1 percent)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 82.9 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 70.2 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • New York State has launched two new microsites to help New Yorkers stay up to date on breakthrough cases and emerging variants of COVID-19. (NBC New York)

    • Find in-depth data on breakthrough cases and hospitalizations here.

    • Find information on how the state tracks variants here.

  • Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a new vaccine incentive program with the Buffalo Bills, the New York Giants, and the New York Jets football teams: anyone ages 12 and older who gets vaccinated between now and Oct. 24 is eligible to win free game tickets and other sweepstakes items. Learn more here.

  • The FDA has authorized COVID-19 booster shots for Americans who received the Pfizer vaccine and are age 65 and older. Third shots were also authorized for those at high risk of becoming severely ill or experiencing complications from COVID-19 due to frequent exposure to the coronavirus. (New York Times)

    • A CDC panel made similar recommendations this afternoon to provide booster shots, but excluded those deemed at high risk due to their jobs. (New York Times)

  • The MTA has pledged to enforce mask-wearing on the city’s subways and buses and will begin issuing $50 fines for riders who don’t comply. Since the law authorizing the fine was signed last September, just 41 tickets have been issued — and just three this summer. (Gothamist)

  • Coffee and food sales at Pret A Manger locations on Wall Street and in Tribeca hit a new pandemic high last week, according to a Bloomberg tracker that collects business recovery data. The numbers suggest banking and finance workers are making more consistent returns to the office after several false starts. (Bloomberg)

In recent conversations with founders of Tech:NYC member companies, one topic that keeps coming up is access to talent. And with the consensus around hybrid and remote work models, executives are retooling their hiring strategies to reach even more people — including those abroad.

Green cards are a big part of that story: Google, Microsoft, and other major tech employers could lose out on thousands of engineers they’re recruiting (or have already hired) due to pandemic-related processing delays, according to new details about federal visa backlogs.

  • 260,000 employment-based visas were available this year, but an 80,000-application backlog means many of the tech workers hoping to gain permanent legal status in the US won’t get it before the Sept. 30 deadline.

  • "The idea that we will leave tens of thousands of these applications unfilled at a time when businesses around the country are having a hard time finding qualified workers seems illogical," Google senior vice president of global affairs Kent Walker told Axios.

The process foreign tech workers go through is lengthy and burdensome. The result: a lot of anxiety for them and their hiring managers.

Tech:NYC has long spoken out about the need to streamline the H-1B visa program and other immigration policies:

  • This is uniquely significant to NYC, where at least 43 percent of New York’s total tech workforce is foreign-born. 

  • “A plethora of tech companies have been started by immigrants. If we don’t continue to welcome them, they will create jobs and build economic opportunity somewhere else. We want to foster an environment that continues to welcome the best and the brightest,” Tech:NYC Executive Director Julie Samuels said at the National Immigration Forum.

The takeaway: NYC is a global tech hub because it’s a global city. But without fixes to the immigrations process, the barriers to entry remain too high and New York, along with the rest of the country, could lose the flow of innovators our economy relies on. We should be doing whatever we can to ensure we don’t hinder the US’s ability to attract and retain highly-skilled talent from all over the world.

In other reading:

  • Offices aren’t for doing your job. They’re for “soft work.” (The Atlantic)

  • The Future of Work Should Mean Working Less (New York Times)

  • 5 effective time management strategies for busy leaders (Fast Company)

  • Cabinet, a New York-based executive assistant software maker, raised $2.6 million in seed funding. Harlem Capital led the round and was joined by Good Friends Capital and Parade Ventures. (TechCrunch)

  • Flieber, a New York-based inventory optimization startup, raised $12 million in Series A funding co-led by GGV Capital and Monashees. (TechCrunch)

  • Ocrolus, a New York-based financial document analysis automation platform, raised $80 million in Series C funding. Fin VC led the round and was joined by Thomvest Ventures, Mubadala Ventures, Oak HC/FT, FinTech Collective, QED Investors, Bullpen Capital, ValueStream Ventures, Laconia, RiverPark Ventures, Stage II Capital, and Cross River Bank. (TechCrunch)

  • Panorays, a New York-based security risk management company, raised $42 million in Series B funding. Greenfield Partners led the round and was joined by Aleph and Oak HC/FT as well as new investors BlueRed Partners, Greenspring Associates, and Moneta VC. (VentureBeat)

  • September 30: Virtual: What the vaccine mandate means for your company, with Nixon Peabody LLP partner Rachel Conn, Engage PEO general counsel Sadiqa Banks-Holsey, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • September 30: Virtual: Decoding Product-Led Growth Success with GitLab product group manager Sarah Waldner, Figma product manager Katie Szeto, and Airtable product lead Kelly O’Shaughnessy. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • September 30: Virtual: Q3 Female Founder Office Hours, for 1:1 meetings with early-stage female founders and Tribeca Ventures Partners’ investment team. Register here.

  • October 6 – 7: Virtual: Future Imperfect Summit 2021, with WNYC editor in chief Audrey Cooper, Partnership on AI head of AI and media integrity Claire Leibowicz, The Knowledge House CEO Jerelyn Rodriguez, and others. Hosted by NYC Media Lab. 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.

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