Tech:NYC Digest: October 22
Thursday, October 22, 2026
In today’s digest, Broadway bucks, spooky stoops, and a spotlight on Lerer Hippeau’s Isabelle Phelps. 💡
But first: NYC AI Demos from Tech:NYC, Pensar, and Two Trees is back!
On November 5, join us at The Refinery at Domino for an AI demo night themed around health tech, featuring live demos from Headway, Evvy, Norbert Health, and Cleo Health, with more companies to be announced soon. Register here.
New York City and State are investing $10 million in a new AI Jobs Institute in Long Island City, aiming to train up to 40,000 New Yorkers for AI-related jobs by 2032. 🤖 (Fortune)
The hub will prioritize lower-income New Yorkers, teaching everything from AI basics to building AI agents, with support from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and other industry partners.
It’ll be supported by a National Advisory Council made up of leaders from government, education, technology, finance, and workforce development (and includes Tech:NYC President and CEO Julie Samuels!).
The investment comes as NYC overtakes the Bay Area as North America’s largest tech workforce.
NYC wants to give nonprofits first dibs on troubled housing. The City Council is set to pass legislation today giving qualified nonprofits a head start on buying distressed residential buildings before private investors can swoop in. 🏘️ (New York Times)
The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) could cover roughly 2,100 buildings, aiming to preserve affordable housing and protect tenants from predatory landlords.
Real estate groups argue the measure could slow transactions and discourage investment, while supporters say it will help keep housing affordable.
Broadway added $21 billion to NYC’s economy over the 2024-2025 season, according to a new report from The Broadway League. That’s a lot of Hamiltons. 💲 (Playbill)
The figure encompasses ticket revenue and other pieces such as food, drinks, and hotel stays.
The report also found that Broadway generated $979 million in taxes to New York City and supported 114,600 full-time equivalent jobs in the city.
In other reading:
A map of Brooklyn’s spookiest stoops (Park Slope Pulse)
The six best things to eat at Madison Square Garden (Time Out New York)
Mamdani opens Staten Island time capsule from 1976, with a letter to him inside (SI Live)
Event Spotlight: Business Insider’s The Long Play
How do you build for the future when the future keeps changing?
On October 29, Business Insider’s The Long Play brings influential leaders together in NYC to explore how to navigate economic cycles, adapt to new technology, and build companies and careers that last. Speakers include Barry Diller, Zach Reitano, Strauss Zelnick, and Cristina Junqueira.
VC Spotlight: Isabelle Phelps, Partner, Lerer Hippeau
Isabelle Phelps took a bet on New York. Now, she’s in for the long haul.
Brainstorming strategies and pitches with startups around MIT, where she earned her MBA, her heart grew for founders in the early stages.
“Once we back our founders, our aim is to stay in their corner for the long haul,” Isabelle told us.
Based on her experience as an operator, and working with a team focused on “finding founders before they’re famous,” she predicts the startups most likely to boom will run more like services companies than software companies.
And she expects a great deal of those companies to come out of New York.
We caught up with Isabelle, now a partner at Lerer Hippeau, to chat about where she started, what advantages she sees for founders and investors here in New York, some common pitfalls in the pitching process, the tech that excites her the most, and much more.
Here’s a preview of what Isabelle told us:
🧑💻 On why founders choose New York City:
“New York’s biggest advantage is its proximity to the industries that create value out of technological advancement, particularly at the application layer. Finance, healthcare, media, retail, real estate, insurance: the buyers, the operators, and the domain experts of all of those industries are here.”
🔮 On her predictions for the VC landscape:
“For a long time, venture steered clear of services [businesses] because of the margins, and AI changes that math: instead of selling a tool and hoping the customer adopts it, a small team can now deliver the outcome itself, whether that’s doing the accounting, collecting the receivables, or automating the factory line.”
📉 On the most common mistake she sees founders make when pitching:
“Founders today spend more time than ever talking about (and manufacturing) traction and early momentum. In a fast-moving market, that’s important, but we’re more interested in hearing about you — the founder — your vision, and why you win in the long-term.”
💰 On a recent investment she’s most excited about:
“The most recent investment we’ve announced publicly is Type. There’s no shortage of AI assistants — the list gets longer by the day — but we still think there is a gap in the enterprise market.”
🍕 And, of course, on the best slice in the city:
“Truly any kind. It’s hands down my favorite comfort food.”
In other reading:
AI uncovers massive flaw in web's foundational code (Axios)
Leaders need to grapple with employee ambivalence on AI (HBR)
Is it time for founders to ditch the pitch deck? (Fast Company)
Legora, an NYC- and Stockholm, Sweden-based developer of AI software for legal professionals, raised $550 million in Series E funding. Atreides Management led the round and was joined by Baron Capital, Capital Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and others.
Featured events:
⭐ October 23: AcceleratorCON 2026, where founders, investors, accelerators, operators, and ecosystem leaders will come together in NYC for live pitches, curated matchmaking, one-on-one meetings, speed networking, educational sessions, and experiences designed to create meaningful connections. Register here with promo code TECHDIGEST.
⭐ October 28: RSV Consumer Brand Summit 2026, Red Sea Ventures’ annual event bringing together the brightest founders, operators, industry leaders, and investors for an afternoon of deep discussion on latest ways brands can build and scale.
Speakers include Nic Jammet (co-founder, Sweetgreen), Siggi Hilmarsson (founder, Siggi’s), Ara Katz (co-founder, Seed Health), and many more. Register here.
⭐ October 29: Crain’s Tech Summit, bringing together leaders across tech, business, policy, academia, and workforce development to explore how New York is building the infrastructure, talent, and partnerships needed to lead in the AI economy. Register here with promo code FRIENDSOFTECHNYC for 15% off.
⭐ November 5: NYC AI Demos: Health Tech, the 12th edition of our monthly AI demo series with Pensar and Two Trees, this month featuring live technical demonstrations from Headway, Evvy, Norbert Health, and Cleo Health, with more companies to be announced. Register here.
Other great events:
October 23-24: Spooky Civic AI Hackathon: Build Weekend, open to anyone who wants to build something for New York City: engineers, product managers, designers, people who used to code, and people who never have. Register here.
October 25: Founders Club NY: Fall Recharge at Othership Williamsburg, a fall reset for founders — sauna, cold plunge, and real conversation. Register here.
October 27: Dating the Dead: What Makes a Connection Real, an evening of thought-provoking conversation with special guest Sarah G. Pierce, author of For Human Use, plus an audience discussion, book giveaway, and author signing. Register here.
October 28: Crafting Cap Tables, a morning built for early-stage and first-raise founders to learn what angels and VCs are actually looking for, before you send that email or step into the meeting room. Register here.
October 29: Is Everything Predictable?: AI, Prediction Markets, and the Philosophy of Foresight, a six-week course exploring works from philosophy, cultural studies, and journalism to understand how technologies that predict the future also shape the present. Register here.
November 2: Powering the Transition: Closing the Skills Gap in New Energy Infrastructure, an interactive working session uniting talent leaders, employers, and training providers to bridge critical skilled-trade gaps and align workforce development with the demands of new energy infrastructure. Register here.
November 2: Can Your Agents Actually Ship?, exploring the data foundations agents need to trust and the SDLC they need to ship through. Register here.
November 2-4: AI DevCon NYC, a three-day gathering bringing together AI developers, engineering leaders and founders to explore the future of AI-native software development. Register here for 30% off for Tech:NYC Digest readers.
November 4: Art Cafe: Women Founders & Leaders, connecting established and rising women leaders, founders, and c-suite executives in NYC. Register here.
November 4: The Serica Initiative’s 2026 AAPI Trailblazers Conference, bringing together leaders across technology, business, academia, media, arts, education and the nonprofit sector for an afternoon of provocative conversation, practical learning and meaningful connection. Register here.
November 4: The Growth Council: Off-the-Record Problem Solving for Scaling Founders, a small-group, peer-to-peer advisory session built specifically for Seed to Series B founders who want to explore their challenges with experts from across the industry and outside their network. Register here.
November 9: Climate Scaling Summit, focused on how climate startups break into government as a customer, regulator, and partner. Register here.
November 10: No Secrets, Just Drinks: Defakto PM Happy Hour, an evening of drinks and light bites in midtown to meet other PMs and trade notes on the future of product, AI, and security. Register here.
November 12: Her Tech Mastermind Circles, where each woman in attendance gets dedicated time to share a challenge she’s facing in her career, leadership, or personal growth, and receive thoughtful, actionable feedback from peers who truly get it. Register here.
November 16-17: Prompt: New York, two days of 1-on-1 meetings between AI founders and top VCs, 10 minutes each, all online. Register here.
December 9-10: The AI Summit New York, Javits Center. Now in its 11th year this event is an established gathering of the global AI ecosystem. Join over 7,000 attendees using the code TECHNYC20 to claim 20% off Delegate or VIP All Access passes. Register here.
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