This is the October 2017 edition of the Tech:NYC newsletter. If you're not already getting this in your inbox, sign up now.

One of the best things about the NYC tech community is the amazing group of women who have chosen to build and grow companies here. In fact, New York City now ranks No. 1 overall among 50 global cities for its ability to attract and support high-potential women entrepreneurs. This month, we’re happy to spotlight women founders and do our part to help new ones get started here.

What We’re Up To

To foster the next generation of women in tech, we recently helped launch the Winternship program with Cornell Tech and the City University of New York. Our Executive Director Julie Samuels and NYC Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen helped kick off the program at the newly opened Cornell Tech campus. Winternship is designed to help more young women get their feet in the door at tech companies with winter internships. Short internships early in their college careers will give these women the exposure and experience that will make their resumes more competitive when it’s time to apply for 10-week internships and full-time jobs.

Companies that will be participating include Tech:NYC members Accenture, AppNexus, Bitly, Blackstone, Citi, Microsoft, Oath, Turner, Warby Parker and others. If your company would like to offer Winternships, please get in touch!

For this month’s companies to watch blog post, we are proud to feature five female founded Tech:NYC member companies. Check out insightful Q&As with founders from Fitnescity, Hyr, Jewelbots, Minibar Delivery, and Videolicious.

Policy Developments

New York City submitted a wide-ranging proposal to attract Amazon to build its proposed second headquarters (HQ2) in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens. Representing our community, more than 50 tech leaders—including Tim Armstrong, Susan Lyne, Charlie O’Donnell, Brian O’Kelley, Jon Oringer, Kevin Ryan, Reshma Saujani, and Fred Wilson—all signed a letter urging Amazon to build HQ2 in NYC.

Part of what should draw Amazon to NYC is our incredible tech growth. Tech:NYC, in partnership with Association for a Better New York and the Partnership for New York City, commissioned a report that demonstrates how NYC’s tech sector has grown more than 30 percent during the past 10 years--a rate three times higher than the U.S. tech ecosystem and six times higher than the overall U.S. economy. Another new report on developer hiring trends from Stack Overflow says 10 percent of the nation's developers are located in the NYC metro area.

The first NYC mayoral debate in early October between Mayor Bill de Blasio, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, and Mr. Bo Dietl lacked a serious discussion of technology and job growth. We hope they’ll find some room during the final mayoral debate tomorrow. Also keep in mind that the election is November 7. We hope you’ll show up to make your voice heard in the mayor’s race and other important ballot items.

Special Announcement

Our Executive Director Julie Samuels welcomed the newest addition of the Tech:NYC team, Cody Alexander, to NYC on October 16.

What Our Community Is Up To

Our member MongoDB successfully went public on October 19, with shares ending the first day of trading 25 percent above its $24 offering price.

New York City announced a new program called NYCx to help the city better prepare for and shape the future. NYCx will focus on innovations such as 5G connectivity, self-driving cars or artificial intelligence, and how they can make the city equitable and sustainable.

WeWork has acquired the NYC-based Flatiron School coding academy with plans to offer coding classes out of its locations all over the world.

Silicon Harlem hosted its annual conference last Friday and featured great talksby NYC CTO Miguel Gamiño, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Uncharted Play CEO Jessica O. Matthews, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and more.

Andela was recently profiled in the New York Times, along with the news that it raised $40 million in Series C funding.

New Lab recently celebrated its first anniversary with a birthday party and open house that brought over 2,500 people to their 84,000 square foot space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In celebration of its first year, New Lab has launched a monthly "micro-publication" called Tech Fancy.

WayUp, which helps college students and recent grads find jobs, just debuted new profiles that incorporate your personality in a way that employers will actually want to see.

The 2018 New York Fashion Tech Lab Program, which targets women-led early and growth stage companies at the intersection of fashion, retail, and technology, is now looking for applicants. Applications are due December 4.

New York City just announced that it will be hosting its Open Data Week again in March 2018. It's looking for submissions and ideas, so fill out this form if you want to participate next year.

The FinTech Innovation Lab has opened applications for its 2018 program. Early- and growth-stage fintech startups are encouraged to apply, with applications due December 1.

Where We’ll Be

November 1-3: Yext will be hosting its annual Onward Conference, which includes speakers Yext CEO Howard Lerman, former U.S. CTO Megan Smith, actor Mark Hamill, Amazon Alexa Chief Evangelist Dave Isbitski, and Bloomberg reporter Jing Cao.

November 4: Our members Expa, Jet, Justworks, and Trello will be speaking at NY Product Conference 2017, which will be hosted at the new Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island.

November 7: We’ll be taking part in a fun fundraiser at the Gust offices to raise money for Tech Takes Action, our campaign to help NY’s tech community chip in, give back, and speak up on issues that matter. Tech:NYC Leadership Council member Charlie O’Donnell will be interviewed in a fireside chat, startups will have the chance to pitch Charlie, and you’ll have a chance to meet other great NYC entrepreneurs.

November 8: This year’s AppNexus Summit at TheTimesCenter will focus on “the future of trading” and feature discussions on how new technology and machine learning will change the digital advertising landscape.

November 13: The Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector (BQX) are throwing a party (which will include a “special surprise”) at New Lab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard to celebrate the future of transit along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront. RSVP now.

November 14: Bloomberg, Cornell Tech, and Tech:NYC invite you to join us for the latest installment of the CornellTech@Bloomberg series, featuring Miguel McKelvey, Co-Founder and Chief Culture Officer of WeWork. McKelvey will discuss the rise of shared workspaces, the future of work, and more with Bloomberg’s Scarlet Fu. Sign up now.

Welcome to Tech:NYC

Say hello to some of our newest members!

• 10XBeta - Delivering hardware solutions for consumer, industrial, and health products, from concept to commercialization.
• CrowdJustice - The world's platform for crowdfunding litigation, legal cases, and projects.
• EVEN - Reinventing personal audio with breakthrough technology and products that tune sound to each listener’s unique hearing.
• Fentrend - The fastest and easiest way to find and price windows and doors at no cost to you.
• Hey Mayor! - Intelligent assistant helping local government departments from transportation to IT.
• Howcast - Provides instructional, short-form how-to videos and text content.
• Leadfeeder - A Google Analytics tool that shows you the companies that visit your website.
• Silicon Harlem - Organization that aims to transform Harlem into a technology and innovation hub through establishing co-working spaces, gigabit infrastructure, securing investment capital, and hosting monthly meetups.
• Stride Consulting - Agile software development consultancy for companies and startups with complex needs.
• Untapt - A digital hiring platform for technologists and employers that uses machine intelligence to match candidates with open jobs in tech.
• Unvolve - A social platform where entrepreneurs can find startup ideas and build solutions to user-submitted problems with the help of the crowd.

Join Us

If you’ve been thinking about having your company join Tech:NYC as a member, now’s the right time! Check out our membership page, and let's start the conversation.

P.S.

Happy Halloween everyone! Special shoutout to our friends at Warby Parker for dressing up in maybe the best group costume ever and offering clever costume advice via text message.