(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the financial district, the Partnership Fund for New York City is working to foster growth among the city’s digital health, financial technology, and life science innovators. The company has a $110 million private fund to contribute money towards efforts to create jobs in NYC, investing up to $5 million in companies.

Their goal, according to CEO Maria Gotsch, is to nurture startups that have roots locally in NY. The funding comes from their private fund as well as the New York City Investment Fund and the New York Small Business Ventures Funds.

Xconomy

Tel Aviv Sunrise (Photo credit: christian.schuit)

The NY-based start up StartApp Inc. did not begin in Silicon Alley. Only six months ago, it’s headquarters were in Tel Aviv where it was founded in 2010. But they said that from the very beginning, their target audience was already the United States.

In fact, the process is similar to what many other successful Israeli startups are following where they gain traction in the global market and then move to the U.S. StartApp and others often begin at Tel Aviv’s Silicon Wadi.

Israel also have more firms on the Nasdaq than any country besides China and the U.S.

Crain’s New York Business

7 World Trade Center (Photo credit: joseph a)

In an effort to lure more technology companies into the Lower Manhattan financial district, the NYCEDC has offered five of 300 companies $250,00 each to move their facilities. Three of the companies are moving from Silicon Alley where prices for businesses are increasing dramatically. The winners were announced at 7 World Trade Center, the first of the buildings to be reopened on the 9/11 site.

One of the winning businesses is Paperless Post, a company that allows users to customize digital invitations. Another re-locator will be The Flatiron School, which offers a 12-week, $10,000 course in web development

The Wall Street Journal

Peter Armstrong (Photo credit: Lou Springer)

Peter Armstrong, CEO of the serialized book company Leanpub, insists that books are startups. At Tools of Change, a three day conference on the future of books in the digital world, Armstrong spoke among hosts of mobile apps, publishers, and entrepreneurs.

Armstrong said that both books and startups are risky, creative, often have a small team and have a low success rate and in both you try to remain private about undertakings. The solution, for him, is to publish versions of a book that is still in progress and have readers give feedback.

Other companies are trying this method of publishing as well including Net Minds, Sourcebooks and Coliloquy.

The New Yorker

Made in NY (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shortly after it’s launch, the “Made in New York” marketing campaign has traveled to the South by Southwest Interactive technology festival in Texas in order to promote the city’s tech scene.

Along with Rachel Haot, the city’s Chief Digital Officer, many Silicon Alley companies came to the conference as well to promote their companies and learn from successful technology startups.

Many of those who were interested in creating startups traveled from NYC to Austin on the New York City Startup Bus, one of eight buses that brought coders, developers, and designers together to create a startup in the 72 hour drive to the conference. The buses then competed their startups against each other at the festival.

Haot said at the conference that of the over 990 tech companies in NY, 75 percent are in the city and they currently are hiring over 3,000 different jobs. At the conference, Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer said that part of the problem is finding people with the skills for the jobs and said that students need to be learning how to code in school.

WNYC

Downtown New York (Photo credit: sreevishnu)

The NY startup scene is growing and, according to research done by Crains, NYC is now home to 46 co-working spaces, 30 incubators, and 14 accelerator programs. The total city funding for launched incubators in NY is over $3.5 million.

New Work City, an incubator which began in 2008, now has over 150 freelancers, students, and hackers working at it’s new location. Incubators like New York City and NYU Polytechnical Institute‘s Varick Street Incubator, are providing low-cost office space and mentors for these early-stage startups. Although most incubators focus on technology, man are expanding into other industries as well.

Crains New York Business

Boston Skyline (Photo credit: brentdanley)

NYers who want to learn more about joining and creating startups will now be able to take classes from a Boston startup school. The school, previously called Boston Startup School, will now be renamed Startup Institute and will offer two-month, five-day-a-week skills training classes beginning in June in NY.

Startup Institute now has 60 students in the Boston area and is focusing on courses that prepare the students to be hired as employees by startups. The four tracks offered by these courses are software development, product design, marketing, and sales. In Boston, this is part of a trend towards experimenting with these types of education as an alternative to traditional business education, according to Xconomy.

Xconomy

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 28JAN11 – Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook, USA; Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Jolanda Flubacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Women in the NYC tech scene weighed in the subject of women in technology during a talk with WNYC. Reporter Anna Sale asked them about Yahoo CEO Marissa Myer and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, two high-powered women in technology.

Sandberg is currently trying to encourage more women to lead the way in the tech revolution, although she has received both praise and criticism for her ideas. One interviewee, Cynthia Schames of ToutApp, said that many women take themselves out of the running because they’re female. Rachael Ellison of REworking Parents, however, said it’s a little harsh to say that it’s up to women to change the nature of the workplace in the way Sandberg is suggesting.

The entire interview can be found at WNYC

Made in NY (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As part of Mayor Bloomberg‘s “Made in NY” tech initiative, the city has compiled a registry of close to 1,000 city startups. The startups on the list are those that have harnessed the creative energy of the city, according to Metro US.

One of the profiled startups is Songza, a music-streaming site that offers playlists based on certain moods that a listener could be feeling. Each playlist is handpicked by the Long Island-based Songza staff.

Another is a NY only online dating sight called How About We that strongly emphasizes going out and doing things with the other person rather than getting to know them online. Users can propose ideas for dates and are matched with others who would want a similar date

Two others include Warby Parker eyewear and Freelancers Union insurance company.

Metro US

Image via CrunchBase

The eight-year-old Brooklyn based online marketplace Etsy now has more than 17,500 NY sellers and is still expanding. The majority of these sellers, according to the NY Daily News, are located in Brooklyn.

Etsy currently employs 300 in the city and it’s CEO, Chad Dickerson, is now featured in a Made In NY ad campaign. The market place allows designers, artisans and craftsmen to sell products at a low cost, with sellers paying only a 20 cents listing few and a 3.5% commission on sales to Etsy.

On the site, one could purchase anything from a bamboo cutting board in the shape of Florida to wooden cake toppers.

NY Daily News

Image via CrunchBase

NY-based startup “Next Big Sound” is becoming a successful startup by adapting to the shift in the consumer music industry towards social media. The company tracks data from Pandora, Facebook, digital downloads, and Twitter and packages them into one location.

For a flat monthly rate, music managers, concert promoters, and label executives can pay to have the startup track a certain artist who may be the next big thing.

Forbes

Image via CrunchBase

Students in NYC will now have access to a $500,000 fund put into place by First Round Capital. The initiative, The Dorm Room Fund, was begun in Philadelphia and last year invested in student-run start ups at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel. NY-based Partner Phin Barnes, said that the idea behind the fun is that students who are motivated and intelligent enough to start a company in college should be capable of handling a  venture fund. Out of students from NYU, Columbia, Princeton, and Cornell’s Tech Campus who apply, 10-11 students will be chosen to source investments and make decisions on startup ideas.

TechCrunch

New York Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NY online-based education provider FurtherEd recently launched an incubator where NYC education start-ups will be able to work for free and have access to all of the FurtherEd resources. This comes after the announcement of Mayor Bloomberg‘s “We are Made in NY” promotion campaign.

FurtherEd hopes that the 8,400-square-foot workspace will promote a culture of growth, collaboration, and technology for startups to work alongside the FurtherEd employees.

PR Newswire

English: The western ramp and pylon of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the NY tech scene continues to grow, Brooklyn has received grant programs, study money, and a new urban engineering school. What it’s missing, according to the New York Observer, is tech tenants. Aside from a 3D printing firm and MakerBot Industries, the area has few startups.

The Observer said that while it might take a while for tech companies to follow the “first-wave creatives” that are already there, it is inevitable that they will come. They cite that there are also few other places for the companies to go.

The New York Observer

Albert Azout, CEO of Sociocast. Image via CrunchBase

The NY-based data and analytics startup Sociocast will be using its $1 million in new funding to hire new staff and expand it’s flagship Prediction API product, according to Venture Beat.

Prediction API claims to have an accuracy rate that is four to seven times as accurate as other solutions at seamlessly handling unstructured data and being flexible to customer specifics.

According to CEO Albert Azout, Sociocast is focusing on Prediction API because it has so much reach and application and could even aide the government analyze data in order to predict those who may commit crime or event help a media outlet predict amount of clicks content will receive. Orginially geared towards enterprise companies, it’s now being used by medium and small businesses with prices ranges from $39 to $749 a month.

Venture Beat

Manhattan (Photo credit: griangrafanna)

The NY Economoic Development Corporation will soon announce the 20 startup finalists planning to move to the areas of lower Manhattan that were hit by hurricane Sandy.

There will be five winners of $250,000 and 15 who receive $10,000. Although there are no strict requirements, funding is being given with the hope that the startups will move to lower Manhattan, creating more business in the area that is struggling to recover from Sandy.

Only two of the finalists are companies not related to technology.

NY Daily News

buildings (Photo credit: meeshypants)

After a recent PrivCo report that put NY-based startups second behind Silicon Valley in mergers and acquisitions, Business Insider has created a list of 25 NYC startups in their early stages that are showing signs of success.

The first of their choices is Modern Guild, founded in 2012 by Adrien Fraise as an online platform to connect high school and college students with mentors where they partake in customized career-building exercises. So far they have $500 thousand from investors. The list also included BarkBox, founded in 2012 by Matt Meeker, Henrik Werdelin, and Carly Strife. It’s a monthly subscription service for dog treats, toys, and other supplies. So far they’ve raised $1.8 million. Also included is littleBits, founded in 2009 as an open source library of small toys similar to legos. Each toy has a function like light, sounds, or motors. It’s raised $3.65 million from investors.

Business Insider

Downtown New York (Photo credit: sreevishnu)

New York is the way to go for those wanting to work in “dash tech”, said Ann Li, managing director of the Center for Economic Transformation, during New York Social Media Week. She further elaborated that NY is a good spot for those who want to partner with existing companies and build on their audience and brand.

This came after Tuesday’s launch of Bloomberg‘s “Made in NY” campaign to promote tech startups citywide. The campaign will include advertising via a film and TV promo campaign as well as a new website that highlights over 3,000 tech startup job opportunities. Li, however, mentioned a challenge as being getting people to work for a startup instead of starting their own startup.

At the launch at BuzzFeed’s headquarters, Bloomberg said that there is no better place to start a digital business than New York City. John Bowles, executive director for the Center for an Urban Future, reminded the audience at a Social Media Week panel that the success of Bloomberg’s initiative will depend on how the next mayor handle the tech sector.

Upstart

English: Kaplan International Colleges Français : Kaplan International Colleges (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This summer, Kaplan will host ten companies education technology and product innovation companies in NY City. The West Village located program will be a three-month intensive from June until September with industry leaders as mentors. Mentors include Udemy CEO Eren Bali, Kaplan’s CEO Andy Rosen, Sree Streenivasan from Columbia, and more. The companies will also receive $20 thousand in funding, introductions to investors, and access to Kaplan’s resources.

David G. Cohen

Welcome to Loosecubes (Photo credit: ajleon)

Cambell McKeller started Loosecubes, which consisted of shared office space for freelance and mobile workers, three years ago in Brooklyn. Now it’s shutting its doors completely, Smart Planet reports. McKeller had experience at Goldman Sachs and in a real estate but had no experience in the technology startup world, turning to books and colleagues for help.

Loosecubes disclosed in 2012 that it has $7.8 million in secure financing and had served 10,000 users. McKeller said that during its time, the company had many fans both techies and non-techies and had made $1.2 million three months after the launch. That being said, when the company relied on funding from ventures, the power began to slip from McKellers hands. They disagreed over how the company should be run and much of the $7.8 million did not come through.

Now, McKeller is working on a nonfiction novel about Silicon Alley.

Smart Planet

At New York Tech Meetup (Photo credit: katielips)

The two year-old NY based space WeWork Labs is now opening two new locations. The company is home to nearly 400 entrepreneurs and 200 startups including Reddit, New York Tech Meetup and Consmr.

One location will be in the Financial District and one in Los Angeles.

Each entrepreneur at the space pays a few hundred dollars a month for their desk, meeting space, workshop. We Work said that even with the recession, incubators have never felt busier.

Business Insider

New Jersey (Photo credit: Martin Haesemeyer)

Although NY Tech is more often talked about than NJ, teams such as Princeton‘s TigerLabs and TechLaunch are still trying to help the state’s entrepreneurial efforts. Tech Launch is looking for 10-12 early stage startups to participate in a 16-week LaunchPad program which will offer space, legal and accounting information, and funding to help them get started.

TechLaunch

NYU Hockey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The NY start up scene is starting a new approach to networking with the launch of Startup Hockey. At these meetups, start up entrepreneurs can meet to make deals, chat, and even play vintage video games. Other start up groups have forms for tech-lovers, women, and other groups with specific interests.

Startup Hockey was created  by Tom Loverro of RRE Ventures in 2011. Loverro counsels the group on ideal startups to join and other questions or concerns they may have. It now has a following of investors, entrepreneurs, gamers, and other tech enthusiasts who meet together to both socialize and talk business.

The New York Post

Downtown New York (Photo credit: sreevishnu)

According to a recent report by PrivCo., 100 mergers and acquisitions occurred for privately held tech companies in the city in 2012. These acquisitions added up to $8.3 Billion, leaving NY in second place after Silicon Valley. The Valley has 226 deals that accounted for $21.5 Billion.

PrivCo’s CEO Sam Hamadeh said that NY companies’ average deal value of $83 million was a dramatic step from previous years and that it’s a testament that NYC can create private technology companies without being acquired. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of tech-related jobs in NY increased by 30 percent and Bloomberg is making initiatives to further enrich the tech scene.

Third place was held by the Boston-Cambridge corridor with 62 deals at $1.7 billion.

AMNY

Image via CrunchBase

Now NYers without a Valentine can find other singles in the NY area with an interactive map. Developed by a real estate Web site, Trulia, the map analyzes data about love and housing and estimates the number of single men and women in a certain ZIP code. Overall, Trulia claims that single women outnumber single men by 1.07 to 1.

The map shows that single women tend to search for men in Lower Manhattan, Midtown West, western Brooklyn, and Queens. It also shows that ZIP codes on the Lower East, SoHo, TriBeca, the Theatre District, Hell’s Kitchen, and the Financial district have more single men than women. Single men also dominate South Bronx, Williamsburg, Astoria, and Glendale.

These single men can look for women in most of Manhattan, but the map shows the highest number of single women in Gramercy Park, the Meatpacking District, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Castle Hill, and the Upper East and West side.

CBS Local 

Brooklyn bridge at night, New York city, NY. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With companies like Seamless Web and FourSquare constantly expanding, NY has become a more popular destination for those wanting to create start ups, according to Crains New York. Lisa Winning, an Australian who came to NY in 2011 to start HeTexted.com is just one of the many who have done so to try and find fortune in technology.

The advocacy and networking group NY Tech Meetup increased it’s membership by 12,000, their largest increase since their founding. Also, of the hundreds of tech companies on the NYTM  ”Made in NYC” list are even currently hiring.

Crain’s says that NY is drawing people in for it’s excitement, diversity, and culture but also because of the shift from Internet infrastructure to applications and digital transitions of the fashion, finance, and advertising industries.

Crains New York 

Downtown New York (Photo credit: sreevishnu)

NY may be an even better place to start a tech company than Silicon Valley, according to Quartz. They claim that although a company started in the Valley is expected to have around 40 times greater value because it takes higher risks, startups in NY have the advantage of chance. There is a greater probability of more small win companies in NY than one large win company in Silicon Valley and many more companies can afford the smaller price tag. Quartz makes the point that a small win can put a company back in for a larger win next time, while no win takes them out of the game.

NY startups are currently more likely to produce more marketplaces and financial tools whereas in Silicon Valley, companies are more likely to build games, social networks, and infrastructure.  Quartz said the shift will take time, capital, education, and entrepreneurs, but that NY will be a game changer in the future.

Quartz

Silicon Valley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to My Crains New York, although NY has a future in tech, the gap between it and Silicon Valley is still as wide as ever.  Although there are as many as 40 Silicon Valley tech startups that are valued at more than $1 billion, NY has none. There are only seven NY startups valued at more than $500 million. THey are ZocDoc, Gilt, EverydayHealth, Seamless, Media Ocean, AppNexus, and Tumblr. Another point for perspective is that only one New York company, Shutterstock, has earned an IPO during the recent years.

MyCrainsNY

New York City (Photo credit: kaysha)

The rapidly emerging NYC tech scene, is often compared to Silicon Valley and Venture Beat writer Hadley Harris did just that in a recent post.

NY has seen a 32 percent growth in Venture Capital deals from 2007-2011 and tech related jobs have increased 28.7 percent since 2007, but the tech scene is different than in Silicon Valley.

According to Harris, one of the differences between the two cities is funding. In NY, the ratio between investors and start-ups is more skewed because there are not enough mid sized investors, so the start-ups are receiving significantly less funding than in Silicon Valley. Harris said that this will change as more start-ups gain solidity. He also suggests that the East coast has a broader mix of talent and the way in which NY blends fashion with technology in start-ups such as Etsy and OnSwipe. Last, he claims that Silicon Valley-based companies are more concerned with growth than engagement and in NY that is less of a problem.  In the new year, Harris said Silicon Valley start-ups will begin taking cues from their counterparts in NYC.

Venture Beat

Much of Williamsburg and Greenpoint are zoned for mixed commercial and residential use, but developers favor building for residential use. Jeremiah Kane, an advisor to Rubenstein Partners, said that many owners of old factories and warehouses won’t sell because they are waiting for the area to be rezoned for residential use.

The New York Times