Summer Tech Watch: Acquaint Yourself With These 22 New York Tech Companies

Summer in New York is a time for many things — catching a Yankees or Mets game, sweating it out on the subway platform, or hitting Luna Park. One essential addition to this list is familiarizing yourself with some of the city’s most-notable tech companies. While it may seem unconventional for summer, as hiring is commonly associated with the new year and into spring, it’s a valuable summer to-do that should not be overlooked. 

Although the first few months of the year are big for hiring, companies that are truly growing at a rapid rate don’t halt their hiring efforts just because it’s beach weather. It’s also important to check out companies that aren’t currently hiring as funding rounds in the city tend to close frequently — the tech sector raised a combined $5.7 billion in funding last year — and hiring sprees tend to begin without warning.

If you find yourself daydreaming about your next job, it’s worth investing your downtime into exploring the awesome perks these New York companies are offering. Between movie nights in the park, rooftop drinks and summer shows, be sure to take some time to get to know some of New York’s most-notable tech companies.

 

 

What Spectrum does: Spectrum is the brand behind Charter Communications, Inc., a telecommunications and mass media company.

 

 

Double benefit: Spectrum may be a legacy company, but that doesn’t mean it operates on legacy technology. Bryant Bonds, senior director of digital platforms agency, spoke with Built In NYC about the work the company is doing to define a common set of standards for its back-end APIs and the impact that will have on its tech team.

“We hope to consolidate our services in order to make them easily consumable by our web, mobile and TV-OS applications,” Bonds said. “This will allow us to develop new services in a shorter timeframe and get new product features out to customers faster. It’ll also make it easier for developers to learn and be productive on varying code bases.”

 

 

What Schrödinger does: Scientists use Schrödinger’s physics-based computational platform to accelerate drug discovery and the design of new materials.

 

Taking sustainability seriously: In April, Schrödinger published its first corporate sustainability report. The report recaps the company’s 2022 CSR efforts, shares data pertaining to them and outlines the 12 environmental, social and governance topics guiding its sustainability efforts. “We now have a corporate sustainability roadmap that allows us to identify opportunities aligned with our mission and our key business objectives,” Alex Schuman, head of corporate sustainability, said in a press release.

 

 

What The Farmer’s Dog does: The Farmer’s Dog is a direct-to-consumer dog food company that offers personalized meal plans that use human-grade meat and vegetables.

 

 

Acting on new ideas: In a November 2022 interview, co-founder Brett Podolsky was asked about which one of the company’s values best reflects its mission. He chose “seek better” and explained how this value gives employees the ability to make a real impact on the business.

“We tend to reject best practices and encourage everyone to look for new and better ways to approach problems,” Podolsky said. “We have a Slack channel where anyone can voice an idea for making something better — from the smallest detail of our customer experience to bigger business ideas. Our leaders engage with all these suggestions and we regularly see them come to life in improvements in our company, culture, brand and product.”

 

 

What Stash does: Stash helps people build wealth. Its app offers automated and self-directed investing and the company’s debit cards provide rewards in the form of stock.

 

 

Big leadership news: In February, Stash welcomed Liza Landsman as CEO. Landsman came to Stash from the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates where she was a general partner, and her tech experience includes serving as the president at Jet.com and as E-Trade’s chief marketing officer. Brandon Krieg, Stash’s co-founder and former CEO, spoke glowingly of Landsman in a company blog post announcing her appointment.

“When I met Liza, I knew,” Krieg wrote. “Liza brings incredible expertise and experience. It makes me so optimistic. She has seen a company hyperscale. She’s operated in consumer and financial services successfully. Liza is what Stash needs now and into the future.”

 

 

What Movable Ink does: Marketers at the NBA, Uber, Dunkin’ and more use Movable Ink’s platform to craft personalized, data-driven email and mobile marketing campaigns.

 

 

Chatting with GPT: Movable Ink recently announced Movable Ink AI, a new tool powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4. The new suite of products features tools for creating email subject lines based on previously used content, automating the frequency of email outreach, including specifying send times; detecting patterns of effectiveness in visual content and text elements, and for compiling reports on individual customers to determine what resonates strongest. Land’s End has tested the new AI tools and its CIO has given them the seal of approval.

“We have already witnessed notable successes in terms of human workload capacity and personalization at scale,” said CIO Sarah Rasmusen in a press release.

 

 

What Flourish does: Flourish is a fintech company offering wealth management firms solutions for managing their clients’ cash and facilitating cryptocurrency investing.

 

 

How to flourish at Flourish: Flourish is currently hiring, and during an interview last October, President Ben Cruikshank told Built In NYC exactly what type of candidates stand out during the interview process.

“The most successful people at Flourish are the ones who take initiative every single day,” Cruikshank said. “They say, ’We can do better. We can do more. We can go faster.’ They have viewpoints that don’t necessarily accept the status quo.”

 

 

What Paperspace does: Paperspace provides a platform for developers to build, train and deploy artificial intelligence models.

 

 

Developing devs: Paperspace provides employees the opportunity to follow their professional passions. Tal Eisenberg joined the company without any formal experience working as a developer and with support from the development team was able to eventually move into an engineering role.

“I started as a customer support associate, but with tremendous help and support from the engineers at Paperspace, I was able to quickly learn the ins and outs of our infrastructure and software to assist our customers on a deeper level,” Eisenberg said. “I now help QA our product and have had the opportunity to be promoted to operations engineer!”

 

 

What Redesign Health does: Redesign Health operates at the intersection of accelerators and venture capital, with the company building companies to solve problems in the healthcare space.

 

 

Supporting women in tech: Alicia Bloom is the VP of strategic partnerships at Redesign Health, and she spoke with Built In NYC in April about her advice for the next-generation of women in tech. In addition to advising women to really know themselves inside and out, Bloom also shared how she supports other women as a leader at Redesign Health.

“Moving forward is important, but I like to think that as a leader, I can be a route and means of access, especially for other women,” Bloom said. “I am grateful every day to be in a position to empower and support, inspire and identify opportunities where others can expand their horizons.”

 

 

What Northwestern Mutual does: In addition to offering financial planning, insurance and investment services, Northwestern Mutual also operates an innovation accelerator and two venture capital funds.

 

 

Striking a balance: Northwestern Mutual was founded almost a century before the first computer was invented, and the company’s current tech stack is a mix of cutting-edge and legacy technologies. Rather than seeing this as a headache, Ahmed Azam, VP of infrastructure and cloud services, told Built In NYC in March that he sees it as a challenge to be overcome.

“We’ve got Kubernetes, cloud computing and are focused on things like artificial intelligence,” Ahmed said. “We’ve got all that. We’ve also got the mainframe and 50-year-old code. The interesting challenge is: ‘How can we live in both of these worlds and, from a business lens, thoughtfully solve the challenges this company has?’

 

 

What Particle Health does: Particle Health’s API platform makes it easier to access patient medical records and also analyzes it to provide actionable insights.

 

 

Meet the new CEO: In May, Particle Health welcomed Jason Prestinario as its new CEO. Prestinario joins the company from San Francisco-based healthtech company Komodo Health where he was the general manager of its healthcare solutions business unit. Prestinario shared his excitement about joining Particle Health in a press release announcing his appointment.

“Particle Health has revolutionized how healthcare data is accessed and exchanged,” Prestinario said. “As someone who is deeply passionate about driving better patient outcomes, I found my calling scaling healthcare data companies. I’m excited to join Particle during this period of rapid growth and eager to push us further and faster.”

 

 

What Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center does: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center provides personalized cancer treatment to patients in New York, New Jersey and online.

 

 

A commitment to DEI: Memorial Sloan Kettering, or MSK, currently has five employee resource networks where employees can network, share knowledge and connect with one another. These ERNs are: BLAM, a group for Black, Latino, Asian and Multiracial employees; ABLE, for those with health challenges and disabilities; BLAM FFA, a BLAM group for physicians; MSK Women on the move, a group for women, Working Parents at MSK, and VETERaN, a group for veterans. Combined these five groups boast more than 3,500 members.

 

 

What Smartly does: Smartly helps social media advertisers work more efficiently by automating the creation of ad creative as well as distribution and testing.

 

 

Lunch around the world: Smartly has offices in five different countries, and each week team members from around the world gather together for lunch. Serena Gencler, sales development manager, shared the motivation behind the initiative, which is known as “United Thursdays,” in an April interview with Built In NYC.

“This weekly gathering provides an opportunity for employees to bond and connect in a relaxed and informal setting, which I believe is crucial for building strong relationships within cross-functional teams,” Gencler said. “Not only does it encourage a sense of community within the workplace, but it also ensures that everyone feels valued and included.”

 

 

What Octane does: Octane provides financing for powersports — such as  jet skis, ATVs and dirt bikes — purchases.

 

 

Fresh funding: Octane announced a $400-million asset-backed securitization in early June. Octane has raised more than $2.6 billion worth of debt financing since launching its asset-based securitization program in December of 2019.

 

 

What Quip does: Quip is a direct-to-consumer company that sells smart electric toothbrushes on a subscription basis and also offers floss, mouthwash and other dental hygiene products.

 

 

Working parents welcome: In addition to offering generous parental leave — see above — quip also supports working parents. Jaclyn Gabriel, senior manager of influencer marketing, told Built In NYC back in September that this was one of the reasons she joined the company.

“Quip allows hybrid flexibility and is understanding of family needs, so I am able to drop my daughter off at school or take her to a doctor appointment in the middle of the day,” Gabriel said. “This was something explained to me during the hiring process, and I am happy to say it remains true.”

 

 

What Templafy does: Enterprise companies use Templafy’s platform to automate the creation of employee content and business documents.

 

 

Getting in on AI: In May, Templafy announced the launch of a new ChatGPT-powered tool designed to help users spend less time doing mundane work. The tool integrates with the Microsoft Office suite and has the ability to summarize, rephrase, improve and elaborate on text. Administrators can set guidelines for its tone of voice to ensure that content is brand aligned.

 

 

What Yieldstreet does: Yieldstreet provides access to alternative, asset-based investments, including real estate, art and corporate debt.

 

 

Make it personal: While Yieldstreet is a fintech company, it still understands the value of relationships. The company is currently hiring for its private client group, a team that provides personalized support to investors, and Jordan Rosenberg, the group’s director, told Built In NYC in April just how important relationship-building is to his team’s success.

“Empathy and an investor-first mindset is key when it comes to having a successful team and making an impact in our space,” Rosenberg said. “Right now, the team is traveling to different cities to meet our investors, get to know them better over dinner and attend different events with the goal of building strong relationships.”

 

 

What Share Local Media does: Share Local Media is an advertising agency that works with e-commerce companies and is focused specifically on direct mail campaigns.

 

 

No cutting back: Recent economic uncertainties have caused companies across the tech industry to tighten their belts and cut back on benefits. Share Local Media has continued to invest in its people, though. In a February interview, Amy Cooperstock, HR manager, shared specifics as to how.

“We continue to contribute 100 percent of medical, dental and vision premiums for our employees and their immediate families,” Cooperstock said. “SLM invests heavily in our teams’ career development as well. As our employees are promoted to people managers, they go through a series of trainings led by an outside organization to ensure they are prepared for their new responsibilities.”

 

 

What Route does: Route’s app gives users the ability to track all of their online orders in a single place.

 

 

The tres commas club: Route became a unicorn in January of 2022 when it raised a $200 million Series B, which valued the company at $1.25 billion. The company took the fast lane to tres commas club, reaching it in just under three years after launching. According to a press release announcing the round and the valuation, other companies to achieve this feat include Snapchat, Pinterest and AirBnb.

 

 

What Mack Weldon does: Mack Weldon is a menswear brand offering everything from shirts to shorts along with underwear and accessories.

 

 

Year one: At some workplaces, that “new company feeling” doesn’t last more than a few weeks or months. That’s not the case at Mack Weldon. Ashley Lotstein, senior director of marketing operations, was recently interviewed by Built In NYC and shared her reflections on how she grew professionally during her first year at the company.

“I have never felt so genuinely supported in my growth and development,” Lotstein said. “I have been given the opportunity to not only perform my role but also branch out and assist in other departments, allowing for a diverse range of experiences and growth opportunities.”

 

 

What Waldo does: Waldo’s no-code testing platform enables companies to build, launch and manage fully automated tests for mobile apps.

 

 

Support for work-life balance: Customer Success Manager Nicole Gaulin spoke with Built In NYC in March about Waldo’s remote work setup and how it benefits employees. In addition to a lack of recurring meetings and flexible work schedules, Gaulin noted that the company takes the mental health and wellbeing of its team members to heart.

“If I am ever feeling overwhelmed or have something going on in my personal life, I know I have a company that supports employees taking the time they need,” Gaulin said. “Often my manager has encouraged me to take an afternoon off when they know I need it. We have unlimited PTO and are encouraged to disconnect. Waldo does not take mental health lightly and fully supports us in caring for ourselves and our loved ones.”

 

 

What SageSpot does: SageSpot provides a platform for authors to host interactive book clubs with their fans.

 

 

Big-time backers: In addition to being backed by Menlo Park’s Khosla Ventures, whose previous investments include DoorDash, OpenAI and Stripe, SageSpot also has a host of celebrity investors on its roster. These include NFL superstar Tom Brady, golfer Rory McIlroy and former WWE wrestler and fitness influencer Torrie Wilson.

 

 

What Teachable does: Teachable helps people with knowledge, skills and expertise to connect with online audiences and create and monetize content.

 

 

Let’s talk ERGs: Teachable currently has six employee resource groups: Asian Pacific Islander, Black Employees @ Teachable, LatinX, neuro:diversity, Teachaqueers and Women of Teachable. Office Manager Penelope Santana spoke with Built In NYC this past spring about how the company supports its ERGs and the work they do.

“Each of these ERGs selects leads each quarter, and the company supports those leads with a stipend because of the extra work they put into their role and provides the ERGs with activity budgets,” Sanatana said. “They create companywide educational training events, sponsor social activities related to identity and offer other experiences, both virtually and in person. “How they use their budget is up to them.”