Against the backdrop of NYCxDesign Festival and a design-themed NYC AI Demos, we caught up with four builders shaping the future of design and helping define the city’s next chapter.

Here’s a look at some of the learnings from the inaugural cohort of the Grid Fellowship.

As part of the Grid Fellowship — Tech:NYC’s civic leadership program connecting senior technology leaders with the systems shaping New York City, now accepting applications for the next cohort — fellows recently spent the day exploring one of the city’s defining challenges and opportunities: building the next chapter of housing in New York.

April 2026’s Series A: A Series adds 21 new companies that just crossed the Series A milestone, and the headline is that the checks are getting bigger.

Team Tech:NYC, along with more than 25 leaders from 20 member companies, headed to Albany this week to meet with state legislators and policymakers about how New York can continue to lead as a global tech hub.