Tuesday, April 14, 2026
In today’s digest, non-boring boring machines, how city-owned grocery stores actually work, and key findings from the Deel Global Hiring Report. 🌎
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The latest on the Gateway Program, the initiative to build a new set of rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River: Crews are assembling two massive, custom-built tunnel boring machines in New Jersey to dig the first new Hudson River rail tunnels in over a century, kicking off a $16 billion megaproject. 🚇 (Gothamist)
The giant drills will carve through rock from the Palisades to Weehawken at about 30 feet per day, with construction expected to wrap by 2035.
It’s a major milestone for the long-delayed Gateway Program after past political fights nearly derailed funding.
It’s bike-to-work season, New York! 🚴 The city is handing out free bike helmets and lights across all five boroughs this spring, turning parks, playgrounds, and bike lanes into pop-up safety stations. (Patch)
Helmets will be available at daytime events from April through June, while bike lights will be distributed during evening pop-ups along major cycling routes and bridges.
Here’s where and when to grab your gear.
We’re so back: New York is getting a preview of summer this week, with temps soaring into the high 80s and even low 90s in some areas before a cooler, stormier weekend rolls in. ☀️ (PIX 11)
Wednesday could flirt with record highs as warm air flows in from the Gulf, keeping things sunny and very warm.
Just in time: It’s Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day! Snag a free ice cream before 8pm today. 🍦
In other reading:
Big money is betting on bagels (New York Times)
Five NYC bars were just ranked among North America’s best (Patch)
How do city-owned grocery stores work? What to expect at NYC’s first (NBC New York)
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AI Hiring’s Urban Pull
Deel’s latest State of Global Hiring Report shows some interesting hiring metrics around AI, talent, and remote work. 💼
Here’s what jumped out to us:
AI trainer roles are exploding: Cross-border hiring for general AI trainers grew 283% in 2025, with 70,000+ workers across 600+ organizations helping refine models in fields like medicine, economics, and translation. 🤖
The U.S. holds the biggest share, with 58.2% of AI trainers based here.
Top startups are willing to pay for capability: Among startups that have raised $100 million+, Deel found cross-border hiring is clustering in talent hubs like the UK, Canada, and Germany, and that 28% of cross-border hires are software developers. 💰
Remote doesn’t mean random: After the post-pandemic drift away from major metros, cross-border workers are moving back closer to urban centers (read: New York).
In the U.S., employees are now located about as close to major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco as they were in 2021. 🏙️
Culture matters too: After a few years of remote living, some workers appear to be choosing urban or suburban proximity over rural isolation, a reminder that lifestyle still shapes where talent wants to be. 🎨
Hiring still follows geography: Seven of the top 10 cross-border roles are in sales, marketing, or other customer-facing functions because local fluency matters. 🌎
💱 Workers are getting smarter about currency risk: How you get paid often matters just as much as how much.
Contractors are actively switching currencies to protect earnings, especially in volatile markets.
Stablecoins are gaining traction as an alternative to local currencies in regions with instability.
🗽 Why NYC should care: This is exactly the kind of shift New York is built for.
The city already has 2,000+ AI startups and 40,000+ AI-ready workers, and this new data reinforces something New Yorkers know well: talent still clusters where industries, customers, and collaborators are closest together.
The big picture:
AI is creating new job categories even as it reshapes old ones.
High-skill workers still want dense ecosystems, not just flexible Wi-Fi.
For companies selling to NYC’s industries, local fluency matters in marketers.
Cities that combine technical talent with deep industry expertise have the edge.
That sounds a lot like New York.
In other reading:
I just finished reading eight major reports on AI and healthcare. Here are my takeaways (Nate Loewentheil/LinkedIn)
Anthropic’s unprecedented growth (Axios)
Thousands of rare concert recordings are landing on the Internet Archive — listen now (TechCrunch)
Welcome to our weekly jobs section, where we spotlight a selection of the NYC tech jobs from Tech:NYC’s Jobs Board — all recently posted. 🔥
Today, we’re highlighting a few marketing and comms roles that made us say, “Let’s circle back and align on messaging.”
Workplace Solutions, Product Marketing Manager, Vice President — J.P. Morgan ($133k-$190k / year): You’ll be responsible for translating product capability into a sharp market proposition, ensuring the organization is clear on who each product is for, what problem it solves, and how it should be positioned so that clients and sales teams understand its value. Apply here.
Waze Marketing Manager — Google (142k-205k / year + equity): From determining positioning, naming, competitive analysis, feature prioritization and external communications, you’ll help shape the direction of Waze, while helping it grow and engage its loyal user base. Apply here.
Director, Enterprise Brand Partnerships & Advertising Strategy — Adobe (157,300-315,100 / year + equity): You’ll define the strategy for how Adobe shows up across key external platforms, publishers, and cultural moments to build awareness, credibility, and demand for Adobe’s enterprise offerings. Apply here.
Bluefish, an NYC-based AI marketing platform, raised $43 million in Series B funding. Threshold Ventures and insider NEA led the round, joined by TIAA and Bloomberg Beta.
Debbie, an NYC-based developer of rewards for users to save money or build wealth, raised $5.3 million in seed funding. Trustage Ventures and Reseda Group led the round and were joined by One Way Ventures, Zeal Capital Partners, and others.
Prefix, an NYC-based AI-powered facility management platform for multi-site restaurant and retail operators, raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Collide Capital and Slow Ventures led the round and were joined by Connexa Capital, Elevated Huts, and existing investors I2BF and Bienville Capital.
Featured event:
⭐ April 23: NYC AI Demos, from Tech:NYC, Pensar, and Two Trees, this month spotlighting the AI startup stack with demos from Justworks, Cognition, Norm Ai, and more to be announced soon. Register here.
Other great events:
April 16: nextNYC VC/Founder Coffee Meetup, an opportunity to connect with local VCs as well as other founders at the beginning of their startup journey. Register here.
April 16: Founder Poker Night, for founders to play cards and meet other founders . Register here.
April 16: Construction Robotics Summit: From Dirt to Data, bringing together the builders, technologists, and decision-makers advancing robotics across the built environment. Register here.
April 17: Founder Breakfast, a curated breakfast for VC-backed founders, ideally at Seed and Series A building in AI. Register here.
April 18: Enterprise Agent Jam NYC, where you’ll have six hours to build an AI agent from scratch. Register here.
April 20: Communicating Your Value with Confidence, an interactive workshop where you’ll learn a practical, repeatable approach to communicating your value with clarity and confidence. Register here.
April 21: Privacy’s Defender at Civic Hall, a conversation between Tech:NYC President and CEO Julie Samuels and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Executive Director Cindy Cohn to discuss Cindy's new book, Privacy Defender. The book chronicles Cindy's 30-year battle to protect the right to digital privacy. Register here.
April 23: Founder Unfriendly with Charlie O'Donnell at Newlab, an afternoon exploring the hard truths about fundraising, as part of the launch of Charlie O’Donnell's book, Founder Unfriendly: What Investors Won’t Tell You About Getting Funded. Register here.
April 23: Raising Your Seed Round: How Investors Actually Decide If You're a Good Bet. Register here.
April 23: Founder Finance Night: Poker and a Free Second Opinion (Post Tax Day), for founders who want to play some poker, and startup or SMB founders who want a gut check on their finances. Register here.
April 23: Tech-Driven, Human-Centered: Leading Through Disruption, a panel discussion at the Columbia School of Professional Studies where leaders from technology and business will discuss what innovations demand of managers and teams in real time. Register here.
April 24: Tech Happy Hour, a chance to connect with the NYC tech and startup community to discover shared interests, explore areas for collaboration, and find your next co-founder or key hire. Register here.
April 27: NYC Fintech Coffee, for fintech founders, investors, and enthusiasts to gather around and talk everything fintech. Register here.
April 28: Rillet Recon, a full-day program on the future of AI-native finance. Register here.
April 29: Enshittification: In Conversation with Cory Doctorow, a discussion on Cory’s bestselling book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. Register here.
April 30: Multi-Agent Hackathon, a hackathon to explore agents that observe a shared space, self-select what they care about, and coordinate without a manager. Register here.
April 30: Fintech Takes 3v3 Classic @ NY Fintech Week, a friendly 3v3 competition complete with good conversation afterwards. Register here.
April 30: The Executive Night, a gathering of ~30 Series A+ founders and investors. Register here.
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