Breaking into New York City's tech scene can be difficult. Like most things in the city, its sheer size, diversity and tempo can make it daunting for newcomers. But, also like most things in the city, when you just launch yourself into the middle of the action, you'll find that people are actually pretty friendly and that it's easy to get involved. Since Built In NYC just launched late last year, we thought we'd be in a pretty good position to share some of the things that came onto our radar. Here's what you need to know to get caught up with the New York City tech scene:
Tech News
New York’s news landscape is pretty crowded, with much of the New York-based press trying to reach a national or international audience. The tech coverage from big outfits like the New York Times, TechCrunch, The New York Post, and Mashable is great, but tends not to be New York-specific. Every so often they’ll cover a local company, but more often than not, cool, local stories just aren't their thing. The New York Business Journal and Crain’s will cover an occasional tech story from a business angle, and Alley Watch calls itself the ‘Pulse of NYC Startups and Tech.’ You can usually find some good, New York-specific tech content on Digital.NYC, a website that syndicates quality content from around the web. Then, of course, you have the gold-standard of NYC tech news coverage from Built In NYC — not that we're biased (or that pompous).
Events
The NY Tech Meetup group is massive, with almost 50,000 members. They formed back in 2004 and are the largest meetup group in the world. The groups hosts a large, monthly meetup in Greenwich Village, which costs $10 to attend. Sign up early or you’re probably not going to get a ticket, because they have a tendency to go quickly.
Every year New York TechDay puts on a huge (and free) event celebrating innovation in technology. The event pulls in people with all sorts of tech backgrounds — from venture capitalists to tech journalists to tech enthusiasts, everyone shows up. This year they'll have some 550 tech companies exhibiting, and expect around 30,000 people to attend. The event will be held April 21st, and you can sign up to attend here.
Actually, if you poke around on Meetup.com, you’re likely to find a group that shares just about whatever your tech interests are. Seriously, here’s one for people using Drupal sites, here’s one for techies who like to ride bikes, here’s one for techies who like to play golf, and here’s one for Europeans who work in tech. Meetup is huge in NYC — use it.
The city is also home to a tons of bigger one-off tech events like Social Media Week and New York Startup Week. Even events that seem to have little to do with tech often have a techie component. For example, The Pratt Institute hosted an exhibit called Coded_Couture to celebrate New York Fashion Week. You can check out the Built In NYC's events page to stay on-top of everything that’s happening.
Online Communities
Without ever leaving the comfort of your ergonomically designed desk chair, you can stay in touch with the NYC tech scene. There are the NYC Tech and the Silicon Alley subreddits, though neither group is hyper-active. Still, if you're on Reddit, they're worth subscribing to.
Obviously Twitter is a good way to stay connected, and just about everything from organizations to companies to entrepreneurs are at least nominally active on the platform. Here are some good Twitter lists curated by the writer behind @BuiltInNewYork's handle.
Of course, we'd love to stay connected with you on everything from Instagram to LinkedIn to Facebook.
Organizations
New York Tech has no shortage of organizations that exist to support its growth. The New York Technology Council is a nonprofit that exists solely to promote the tech industry in the city. They hold events throughout the year, promote collaboration in the tech space and organize advocacy trips to Washington, D.C. If tech was tobacco, you'd call them 'big tech'.
The city is also home to a ton of organizations that promote niche tech interests. For example, Girl Develop It helps adult women learn to code, the Coalition For Queens supports tech in Queens, and 37 Angels offers a bootcamp for female angel investors that want to invest in seed stage companies. Really, whatever it is you’re looking for, Google it and there’s a good chance you’ll find an organization that's doing it.
Funding
As a global financial capital, New York City is home to tons of angel investors and venture capitalist firms. If you're looking for funding, there's certainly a lot of it, especially in Manhattan.
Many of the city’s angel investors have organized and teamed up to form angel groups. From an entrepreneur's standpoint, and angel group gives structure to the process of fundraising and allows easier access to a larger number of angels. You can find out more about that, as well as a list of the city's largest angel groups here.
As for venture capital firms, there are a ton of them. You can find details on 40 of the city’s top firms here.
Incubators/Accelerators
If you’re looking for an incubator or an accelerator program to jumpstart your business, you won’t have to leave the city. TechStars, AngelPad, BetaWorks all have highly competitive programs that are well known internationally and based in the city. There are also a ton of industry specific incubators for companies in industries like healthcare, IoT and fintech. Here are a list of the city’s incubator programs, and here is a list of the city’s accelerator programs. Don’t know the difference? We got you covered.
Coworking
With locations seemingly every couple of blocks, WeWork is the undisputed king of coworking in New York. WeWork does a really good job of giving entrepreneurs what they want — the internet always works, the coffee is always fresh, and they offer some amazing networking opportunities. That said, they are by no means the only name in the game. If you're looking for something a little different, or just don't want to have to say that you work at WeWork, you can find an in-depth guide to Manhattan's coworking spaces broken down by neighborhood here.
Hope that's helpful. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
