Monday, August 11, 2025

August 11, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Monday, August 11, 2025 

In today’s digest, new Acela trains on the track, coworking in NYC, and the Q team. 💫 

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  • New Amtrak NextGen Acela trains are coming along the Northeast Corridor between Washington D.C., New York City, and Boston this month. (Washington Post) 🚄

    • Five of the 28 new trains are coming in from Boston to D.C., and the remaining will be added over the next two years. 

    • That means: The current almost 3-hour trip from D.C. to NYC gets 20 minutes shaved off it. Plus, better WiFi, bigger windows, and plusher seats.

  • In more rail news: A Central Park station has been renamed in honor of Malcolm X as a tribute to his deep ties to the neighborhood. The 110th Street–Central Park North subway station now bears the name 110th Street – Malcolm X Plaza. (Spectrum News)

  • The Q Team heads to Queens! The NYPD Quality of Life Team, whose main focus is to make daily life better for New Yorkers, began in Brooklyn’s 60th Precinct in April, expanded through the borough and Manhattan in July. (AMNY)

    • NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says that, since their launch, the specialized unit has responded to more than 17,000 311 and 911 calls, towed 700+ abandoned vehicles, seized 300+ illegal moped scooters and ebikes, and more.

    In other reading:

  • Central Park’s Delacorte Theater reopens after $85 million glow-up (Crain’s New York Business)

  • NYC will give $16M to schools for cellphone ban. See how much yours will get (The CITY)

  • Tall order: NYC’s tallest subway station to get elevators, putting accessibility on the ascent (amNY)

Coworking in New York is leveling up. 📈 The just-released Q2 2025 Coworking Market Report from CoworkingCafe shows that while the number of spaces is slightly down, the quality and scale of NYC’s flexible work ecosystem is on the rise.

Here’s what to know:

  • 🗽 Manhattan still reigns as a coworking capital, with 267 spaces and the largest average space size in the U.S. at nearly 41,000 sq. ft. That’s up 1% from Q1, showing a shift toward premium, amenity-packed hubs built for enterprise teams and growing startups.

  • 💪 Brooklyn is having a quiet boom: despite a slight dip in locations, the borough’s total coworking footprint grew 5% quarter-over-quarter, proof that NYC’s outer boroughs are gaining real momentum in the flex work world. 

  • ⚡ The average Brooklyn coworking space now clocks in at over 22,000 sq. ft., making it one of the fastest-scaling coworking markets nationwide.

💰 Pricing still reflects NYC’s status as a top-tier destination:

  • Monthly memberships: $339 in Manhattan (highest nationally) and $330 in Brooklyn (2nd highest).

  • Meeting rooms: $66/hour in Manhattan, the most in the U.S.

  • Virtual office subscriptions: Still affordable at $119/month in Manhattan, well below the national median of $159. (Brooklyn comes in at $149/month.)

🔍 Zoom out: 

  • The total U.S. coworking footprint grew by just 0.3%, reaching 141.25 million square feet, up slightly from 140.76 million in Q1.

  • The number of coworking spaces nationally declined by 1%, falling from 7,840 to 7,742 locations — the first quarterly drop in recent years.

Why it matters: Operators are leaning into what works: bigger, better-designed spaces in neighborhoods where talent actually lives (think: New York!). That means more adaptive, more accessible, and more community-driven spaces across the five boroughs. 

  • For NYC’s tech community, it’s great news: the infrastructure for hybrid teams, solo builders, and growing startups is only getting stronger.

In other reading:

  • The new era of work travel (Wired)

  • 21 ways people are using A.I. at work (New York Times)

  • The leadership strategy that’s more valuable than performance reviews (FastCompany)

  • Casap, an NYC-based credit card dispute fintech, raised $25 million led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Primary Venture Partners and SoFi.

  • EliseAI, a New York-based developer of chatbots for the housing industry, raised around $200 million led by a16z. 

  • Novig, an NYC-based sweepstakes sports prediction market, raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures and joined by YC, NFX, Perceptive Ventures, and Gaingels.

  • Translucent AI, an NYC-based developer of AI-powered financial analyst software for health care operators, raised $7 million in seed funding. NEA led the round and was joined by Virtue, FPV, and Redesign Health.

  • Vendict, an NYC-based AI-native platform in the enterprise GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) space, raised $10 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by new investors Moneta VC and JAL Ventures, with participation from existing backers NFX, Cardumen Capital, Disruptive AI, and Cyber Club London.

  • August 14: AI Agent Buildathon, for builders, AI-nerds, tech-enthusiasts, and investors. Register here.

  • August 21: August Founder Dinner, for a curated group of pre-seed to series A founders, especially those building in B2B SaaS & AI. Register here.

  • August 26: Brderless x Rho Founder Breakfast, for a curated group of seed-stage founders (post raise) who are scaling or gearing up for Series A. Register here.

  • September 3-4: Go-To-Market: Building Distribution Engine that Scales, a two-day workshop for early-stage founders to master go-to-market strategy, build a scalable distribution engine, and get real feedback from top operators and founders. Register here.

  • September 10: NYC Summit, Primary’s annual invite-only conference, bringing together 2,000 top founders, VCs, and LPs. This year’s speakers include Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals), David Karp (Tumblr), Toyin Ajayi (Cityblock Health), Lina Khan (FTC), Kareem Amin (Clay), and more. Apply to attend here.

  • September 18-20: The Atlantic Festival relocates to NYC with its screenings, book talks, and more with influential thinkers including Scott Galloway, Keri Russell, Mark Cuban, H.R. McMaster, Robert Downey Jr., Richard Ayoade, David Letterman, Dr. Becky Kennedy, Tom Hanks, and many others. Register with promo code TECHNYC20 for 20% off one-day passes here.

  • September 23: Deep Tech Forum + Startup Showcase in NYC, bringing together deep tech startups from across the globe alongside corporate innovation leaders, investors, and ecosystem partners, for a full day of mainstage sessions and startup exhibitions. Register with promo code TECHNYC for a 20% discount here.


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