Why New York City's Tech Industry May Be Wary Of De Blasio

In early October 2013 Andrew Rasiej, chairman of the New York Tech Meetup, and Kevin Ryan, chairman of Gilt Groupe, organized an off-the-record meet-and-greet for Democratic mayoral candidate Bill De Blasio and 70 to 80 members of New York City's tech community. By a couple of accounts, it wasn't the most successful speed date.

Now Mayor-elect De Blasio came off like an out-of-touch, old-school lefty. For example, he referenced the City University of New York as a cutting-edge educational resource (not, say, General Assembly, Hacker School, or Codecademy). The twelve-year reign of Mayor Michael Bloomberg coincided with the explosion of the New York City technology industry, which now boasts 262,000 workers contributing $30 billion in wages to the local economy. "It’s really hard for a lot of people in technology to understand whether Bill might be a good mayor," says Rasiej. Interviews with several members of the tech community suggest that whatever happens, the relationship between one of the city's economic powerhouses and the City of New York is about to get a lot more complicated. "The community for the first time found their mayor in Bloomberg," says Kane Sarhan, who, as the founder of Enstitute, works to place apprentices with startups all over the city -- from Warby Parker to Bit.ly. "[Bloomberg] launched all these great initiatives and made it a priority for the city to support this booming tech sector. The concern is that that could all go away. As a politician, you don’t hear Bill talking about our needs, our industry. He doesn’t have that track record or history of entrepreneurship.”