NYC’s Startup Community is Booming, Thanks to TechDay NYC

By Peter Salib Peter Salib has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team
Published on May 14, 2019

Nationally speaking, hosting an event in Las Vegas means it’s a pretty serious event. In New York, hosting an event in the iconic Jacob Javits Convention Center is a sign of growth, especially when the event outgrows its legacy venues.

That phenomenon held true for TechDay NYC, which we’ve covered previously, completing a massively successful 8th annual event in NYC, showcasing over 300 exhibiting startups, hosting thousands of attendees, and setting the stage for dozens of insightful speakers.

With growing international recognition, TechDay serves as a hub for everyone to gather in NYC and get a pulse of what’s happening in the Big Apple. So for those of you did not make it out to TechDay, you can get a taste of the coolest speakers, startups, and individuals that were part of making this event a wonderful experience for all involved.

On the Stage

Chuck Pettid, Founding Partner at Republic, and co-producer of Meet the Drapers, took the stage to educate the room about the regulations surrounding angel investing. Chuck dove into details about how the new JOBS Act enacted by the SEC is allowing everyday people who aren’t “accredited investors” the opportunity to invest as little $50 into startups they believe in. Founders lined up after the talk for a chance to better understand the qualifications for startups to start leveraging the regulation crowdfunding platform as a viable fundraising option.

As for live startup demos, Silent Beacon was able to present their emergency alert system amongst a group of other consumer app and product companies. The demo featured the Silent Beacon device along with the free app that works together over Bluetooth to give the user of the Beacon the ability to press a button and send a life alert. The alert is sent to a pre-set list of In-Case-of-Emergency (ICE) contacts that receive a text with the GPS location while also making a phone call to either 9-1-1 or a loved one. Personal safety devices, like Silent Beacon and WanderSafe are on the rise and as more companies design different forms, creating awareness is crucial, which is why events and demos play a big role.

On the Floor

The more visual and experiential your product is, the better the booth presence you may have at events. With a very “cool” product, the Blue Quench booth was a good spot to “chill out.” The Blue Quench “qooler” is an insert that goes inside your existing cooler holding just some ice and water.

The qooler holds up to six regular cans or 2 bottles of wine and rotates them very fast while hitting them with that ice cold water surrounding it, thus bringing these beverages from room temperature to “ice freaking cold” in just 60 seconds. With a 20V battery, you can use the qooler anywhere like the beach or a soccer game, but you can also plug it in for continuous use.

On the service side of things, but also very visual, Scopio was exhibiting at TechDay to showcase their user-generated photo marketplace. Christina Hawatmeh and Nour Chamoun, founders of Scopio, take a curated approach to connected brands with content creators around the globe who are taking real, authentic photos, without the use of models. As a royalty-free marketplace, Scopio is transforming photo discovery and empowering artists. This comes with great importance as every founder these days understands the power of a genuine social presence and having great, inspiring photos is an essential aspect of building those relationships.

In the Crowd

Among the crowd, were familiar faces, and many new ones. Anthony Delgado of Disrupt Digital, was in town for TechDay from Puerto Rico, where his company is spearheading the development of the tech and startup ecosystem through an event series of their own called Disrupt Puerto Rico.

Dean Scaduto, CEO of Dino’s Digital, a top-tier digital marketing agency, and an avid supporter of entrepreneurs was also in the crowd. Connecting with attendees is one of the greatest serendipitous experiences you can have at the event. Dean is currently serving as an Advisor to a handful of startups including Pairity, an AI-powered debt recovery company who raised a 2nd round total around $4.125 million and Bixby, a platform technology for tenant & resident management for many property types.

These sorts of opportunities come from founders and other members of the community meet in person at events like TechDay. While it’s great to walk the floor and connect with exhibitors, you never know if you next investor, advisor, co-founder is walking around, booth-hopping right next to you.

When Dean meets another digital marketing innovator or startup founder, he gets excited about the opportunity to learn from one other and potentially collaborate. Especially since Dean formerly served on the advisory board of the Foundation for Gender Equality, he describes the power of diversity in the community.

You never know who you can be in the same room with so the first real step is just to show up. These days, a CEO or successful entrepreneur can be literally anyone, and they likely didn’t get there all on their own. Events like TechDay are a great place to discover your tribe of like-minded people that can help you navigate success.” – Dean Scaduto, CEO, Dino’s Digital

The wide range of audience in attendance is representative of how tech overlaps and touches nearly every sector of business. Founders, investors, legal folk, accounting folk, startup people, individuals with massive success and ones just starting out all gather to connect around inclusive innovation. The tech ecosystem, which includes events, brings the online community together in real life for an experience that can prove to be transformational, personally and professionally.

By Peter Salib Peter Salib has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team

Peter Salib is a Tech Columnist at Grit Daily. Based in New Jersey, he is an avid participant of events nationwide who's attended CES in Las Vegas consecutively since 2013. Peter is the host and producer of Show & Tell, a product showcase YouTube channel and also works at Gadget Flow, a leading product discovery platform reaching 31M consumers every month. Peter frequently works with startups on media, content writing, events, and sales. His dog, Scruffy, was a guest product model on the Today Show with Kathy Lee & Hoda in 2018 and was dubbed "Scruffy the Wonder Dog.”

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