Monday, July 7, 2025

July 07, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Monday, July 7, 2025 

In today’s digest, how to help Texas flood victims, how to save money on the train, and how the One Big Beautiful Bill affects New York tech. 🗽

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  • Flash floods that swept through Kerr County, Texas, over the weekend killed at least 82 people and left dozens missing. Here’s how you can help Texas flood victims from your home in New York. (PIX11)

  • After six months, the numbers are in, and congestion pricing is a success: There are 67,000 fewer vehicles entering Lower Manhattan daily, and public transit ridership is up. 🚉 (Gothamist)

    • Rush-hour delays at the Holland Tunnel are down 65% and drivers coming into the city are getting back 7 minutes for every hour spent commuting. 

    • There are also fewer traffic accidents, and the program is on track to raise $500 million in revenue in 2025, allowing the MTA to move forward with $15 billion in transit improvements.

  • Let’s keep on that train of thought: The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad Summer Saturday discount program is back! Monthly ticket holders can ride to any train station along the lines and bring friends or family for just $1 each. 💰 (NBC New York)

➕ One more thing: Big thank you to Sid Ramesh and Wei Chen (Archer) Chiang for referring subscribers to the Tech:NYC Digest this week! Join them and win swag by participating in our referral program — details at the end of this email.

In other reading:

  • Op-ed: Child care must be No. 1 issue: NYC mayoral candidates have to push on affordability (Daily News)

  • Where have all the dollar eats gone? (New York Times)

  • New DOT report: How NYC streets and sidewalks are undergoing an accessibility makeover (amNY)

Congress passed the so-called “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” last week. Beyond being polarizing for many, it will have a sizable impact on tech, New York, and tech in New York. Let’s take a look. ⬇️

🎖️ Winners and losers: Business investors and wealthy Americans will be among the biggest winners from the bill, while elite universities and immigrants will be hit the hardest, according to Bloomberg.

Tech’s standing: It’s a mixed bag, as AI and data centers feel the heat, while chipmakers secure a victory.

📉 Energy setbacks:

  • The bill phases out tax credits for solar and wind projects, which will likely increase electricity prices for consumers, according to Axios.

  • Electric vehicle tax credits will end in September, as will other cleantech energy subsidies like residential solar benefits, which will likely force cleantech companies to rethink their business models.

  • Critics say the changes in energy policy could cost the U.S. the AI race, according to Fortune, giving China the upper hand, whose AI firms would gain a great opportunity to match the U.S. (Vox).

  • The Senate also removed the 10-year moratorium on state regulation of AI. 

📈 On the plus side for tech, it may soon be cheaper for semiconductor manufacturers to build plants in the U.S. as the bill gives chipmakers larger tax credits. 

  • Tax credits for those semiconductor firms would rise to 35% from 25%.

🗽 What about NYC? New York City appears to fare better than New York State right now, according to The CITY.

In New York State:

  • The reduction of federal Medicaid funding will do damage to the state’s budget, with Governor Kathy Hochul potentially needing to call a special legislative session. That hole will likely only get bigger in next year’s budget. 

  • State officials may be tasked with keeping as many people as possible on Medicaid and SNAP food benefits or allow enrollment to decline to reduce pressure on the budget.

  • The bill also increases the cap on deducting state and local taxes (SALT) from $10,000 to $40,000, benefiting suburban upper-middle-class couples with high property taxes and mortgage interest deductions.

In New York City:

  • NYC is facing less severe consequences currently, but the Mayor and City Council will also face choices on whether to fill in some of the safety net gaps created by the bill or reduce aid to low-income New Yorkers.

Dig Deeper:

In other reading:

  • AI is eating venture capital, or at least its dollars (Axios)

  • Why big companies are bringing tech work back home (Forbes)

  • How AI can spur a rebirth of media (Semafor)

  • Argon AI, an NYC-based AI-native workspace for life sciences, raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Crosslink Capital and Wireframe Ventures led the round and were joined by Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund.

  • Parter, an NYC-based hardware manufacturing data startup, raised $5.5 million in seed funding. StageOne Ventures led, joined by Zenda Capital and Mercer Ventures.

  • July 8-9: What Businesses & Communities Need to Know about the NY Health Information Privacy Act, a virtual webinar series featuring expert panelists who will explain the potential implications of New York State Bill S929 on your organization, should the legislation be enacted. Register here.

  • July 12: Vibe Coding Hackathon, featuring a lightning-round session where attendees can share their favorite tools, tips, and vibe coding setups. Register here.

  • July 15: How to Form an Effective Board, a free breakfast event designed to help startup founders — from pre‑seed through Series A and beyond — build and manage high‑impact boards. Register here.

  • July 16: Brderless’ July Founder Breakfast, ​for seed-stage founders who have raised or are in the process of raising series A, and are now focused on scaling — building the team, refining GTM, and shaping the story for the next round. Register here.

  • July 16: Pitch Deck Bootcamp: Build, Test, & Perfect Your Founder Pitch, where you can build, present, and refine your deck with real feedback from experienced judges and fellow founders. Register here.

  • July 16: Get AI-ready for Q4: Ecommerce AI Lab, a look at how AI agents are reshaping commerce — from support to marketing to sales to insights to operations. Register here.

  • July 19-20: Agentic AI App Hackathon, a two-day event to build and deploy your own agentic applications on Google Cloud with Cloud Run. Register here.

  • July 23-24: Go-To-Market: Building Distribution Engine that Scales, a two-day intensive designed to help founders build the single most important part of their startup: a repeatable, scalable go-to-market engine. Register with promo code BRDERLESS20 here.

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