“New York City: the center of the universe,” sings Angel in the hit broadway musical, “RENT.” And cliche as that statement can be, it has merit.
New York City has long served as the United States’ starting point for trends and innovations. It was, for a long time, the first port of call for those emigrating to the U.S., who brought with them their cultures and belief systems, melding their old worlds with the new.
It is a city in tune with European culture, taking cues from faraway fashion moguls, authors and filmmakers. It is the birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance and modern dance, as well as an original breeding ground for jazz.
There is no one word or phrase that can be used to describe a New Yorker, save maybe that phrase itself: a New Yorker, original and true. Native city-dwellers are uniquely innovative, breathing in the same air as the rest of the world, and breathing out something magnificently their own.
This second-largest city in the world has had similar patterns in the tech industry, watching its counterparts closely and taking from their successes and failures.
“The New York tech scene is starting to resemble the traditional New York economy. Companies and investors aren’t looking to make thousands of bets on failed companies in hopes [of] finding one mega-unicorn,” Josh Kleyman said in a Forbes article originally seen on Quora. “Instead, we’re seeing a shift towards cash cow companies that make money instead of noise.”
The city’s tech scene — like many of their startups — is in a growth stage, expanding both physically and in regards to the industry genres within each borough. Experts share their opinions on potential 2018 growth on AlleyWatch, predicting changes such as the growth of health tech, and the fragmentation of AI platforms.
“The Frightful Five (Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple and MSFT, as the New York Times coined them), will continue expanding their reach across industries, causing businesses to be wary of entrusting their data to these tech behemoths,” Matt Zeiler, of Clarifi, said. “These fears will incentivize businesses to host data on independent platforms and providers, supercharging the advancement of AI + data companies and ecosystems.”
Additionally, Kleyman asserts in his Forbes piece that there is a lack of separation between industries and their technology exhibited in NYC, saying that “AdTech is just becoming the advertising industry, ConstructionTech is just becoming construction, and EntertainmentTech is just becoming entertainment. This change is showcasing the maturity, and most importantly, the success and stability of technology in New York.”
In a city where neighboring apartments pile hundreds of stories high; where rush-hour train commuters can frequently only find space in the armpit of a fellow passenger; where crosswalks are simply a suggestion for the millions rushing throughout city streets; it’s no wonder, then, that the city’s tech scene would become another interconnected, blended form of life and culture.
Interested in a more in-depth look and firsthand commentary on the tech industry in New York City? Check out Built In NYC for articles on NYC tech news and job market information.
Tech as a whole is all-encompassing, diverse and constantly progressing. So while the following section — which strives to point out trends about the B2B tech space in all five of New York’s boroughs — may seem unnecessary and perhaps a bit fatiguing, we thought it fitting to properly pay tribute to as much of this bustling city as possible.
You know a tech scene is worth noting when it has its own nickname — welcome to the Silicon Alley. As Fergal Gallagher of Built In NYC writes, the moniker first arose in the mid-’90s, referring to “the wave of new media tech startups that were located around the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan near Madison Square Park.” The Manhattan tech haven nearly died out in the early 2000s with the dot com crash, but saw a revival in 2003. Since then, the New York tech scene has exploded, with Manhattan at its beating heart. Silicon Alley is now home to tech giants such as Tumblr and Buzzfeed.
According to Inc Magazine’s in-depth article about the state of the New York tech scene, startups have “Brooklyn and New Jersey, as well … Jet.com is in Hoboken, and Audible just moved to Newark, New Jersey.” Not to mention, Brooklyn has a self-identified “Tech Triangle,” which is made up of downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 2015, Brooklyn’s Tech Triangle had an overall economic impact of $5.3 billion, surmised Metro, an online publication geared toward education young professionals. Built in NYC even has a whole section that spotlights Brooklyn startups.
Queens is showing itself to be a contender for the next hub of New York City’s tech scene. This borough has more affordable real estate than the more traditionally prominent Brooklyn and Manhattan. Organizations that set up shop in this area can drastically cost their costs. Queens also finds a large talent pool within its vast and diverse population. Tech organizations are seeing the benefits — the coworking space titan WeWork moved into Queens in 2016. Currently, some influencers are even making arguments as to why Amazon should open up its next office in Queens.
Forbes Magazine recounted a Quora contributor’s answer to “what is the tech scene in New York like in 2017?” To sum up, the contributor discussed the creeping expansion of the New Yorkian tech industry: “The tech industry, originally locked in the few blocks surrounding 23rd street (Silicon Alley), has expanded up north to Harlem and the Bronx, as well as out to Queens, and even to entirely new developments in Brooklyn. Each region has its focus … social good enterprises setting up in Harlem and the Bronx.” This makes sense, once you take a look at MetaBronx. MetaBronx is one of the Bronx’s first startup accelerators, and it’s got a very focused mission: they specifically support tech startups owned and operated by women and people of color.
Four years ago, Crain’s published a piece where it posited the potential for Staten Island’s North Shore to leverage its not-terribly-expensive commercial space and history of broadband infrastructure. In a seemingly dreams-finally-coming-true press release, Cision reported in early January 2017 that, “The North Shore of Staten Island is becoming a burgeoning center of technology innovation in New York City, led by the efforts of the CUNY College of Staten Island (CSI) Technology Incubator … The CSI Tech Incubator is poised to have Staten Island lay claim to the economic development of the technology sector, deepening the borough’s integration with the fabric of the City’s technology ecosystem.” It may finally be the time for Staten Island to become the harbinger and source of all internet of things. Oh, and one more thing: in June 2016, Telehouse, a global data center provider with a campus on Staten Island, hosted the very first Staten Island B2B Expo, cheekily named “Beyond the Ferry.”
Note: Only software vendors on G2 Crowd with headquarters currently in the NYC area are included in graph.
“The emerging tech industry in New York is an amazing tight-knit community that benefits from the incredible diversity this city has to offer. We came from Silicon Valley to New York to build this business and it has proven to be the right decision.” Toland Lawrence, Digital Marketer at Hive
“There are so many great companies that call New York home, especially in the tech space. We feel that being surrounded by such phenomenal innovation and passion make us a stronger competitor in our market. While the evolution of our platform has been born out of need in the PR space, its the ability to listen to our clients and deliver what fills those needs is what has allowed us to continue to keep them.” Anthony Santiago, Newswire Director of Marketing
We have compiled data on the state of the New York B2B tech scene that includes all of the top-rated products on G2 Crowd which have parent companies headquartered in New York. Our list is ranked by user satisfaction of a company’s top-rated product. To qualify, a product was required to have at least 10 verified user reviews.
For each qualifying product, we created a company profile to recognize what that company is and does, as well as give a little insight into its history. The data relies on G2 Crowd’s more than 300,000 B2B software and services reviews, or from public data sources such as LinkedIn, Crunchbase or each vendor’s website.
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1. OutgrowProduct: Outgrow |
Outgrow is a marketing platform that utilizes feature-packed calculators and quizzes to engage with prospects, ultimately turning them into customers. The product is made up of drag-and-drop builders, which can be customized according to the look of an organization’s branding. Outgrow also collects data about the users who used the calculator or quiz made through the platform. In addition to companies being able to embed Outgrow either directly into their site or as a pop-up, Outgrow easily integrates with a number of sales and marketing tools.
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2. Abacus LabsProduct: Abacus |
With an impressive 776 reviews on G2 Crowd, Abacus is a High Performer in the expense management category and a leader within our New York-based products. Abacus has a mobile app that eases the process of employees submitting expenses on-the-go; just as handily, Abacus has a Slack integration, which sends reminders and notifications through the messaging application. On the business management side of things, Abacus facilitates the configuration of expense policy rules to monitor expense report submissions and set granular auto-approvals, routes expenses to the correct approver, tracks and learns custom expense data, and even provides a dashboard that tracks real-time corporate card spending. Abacus received a High Performer badge in the Fall 2017 Expense Management Grid® Report.
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3. InVisionProduct: InVision |
InVision is a powerful design prototyping tool that is also easy to use. The product has a feature called “Boards,” which are flexible whiteboard spaces where users can store and collaborate about design ideas – both internally and externally. The product also has a feature called “Freehand,” which is essentially a design and wireframe module that can be shared amongst team members in real time. InVision simplifies and streamlines development workflow via stylesheets that can generate code for any design element. In February 2017, the company was named one of the Top Company Cultures of 2017 by Entrepreneur and CultureIQ.
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4. ConductorProduct: Conductor Searchlight |
Conductor Searchlight is an SEO effectiveness platform; that is, it analyzes and reveals trends and topics when users search for content. With Conductor, marketers can continuously measure and refine SEO and other content marketing efforts, based on insights drawn from the search rankings and performance opportunities. Conductor Searchlight received a High Performer badge in the Fall 2017 SEO Grid® Report. In November 2017, the company was named one of the Best Places to Work in NYC by Crain’s.
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5. RoblyProduct: Robly |
With an impressive 629 reviews on G2 Crowd, Robly is a High Performer in the email marketing category and a leader within our New York-based products. Robly is an email marketing tool that uses OpenGen technology to boost open rates, grow contact lists, optimize email campaigns, and intelligently automate email sends. The solution also provides a multitude of customizable templates and tracks opens, click rates and mobile views. Robly received a High Performer badge in the Fall 2017 Email Marketing Grid® Report.
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6. NewswireProduct: Newswire |
Newswire simplifies the distribution and tracking of press releases to both traditional and digital media outlets. The platform includes a newsroom (which centralizes PR content into a singular database), tiers of distribution plans, and analytics (which measures, among other things, open rates and view locations). Newswire’s tiered pricing plans offers distribution to specific outlets and increased number of included media outreach contacts.
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7. MongoDBProduct: MongoDB |
MongoDB is a general purpose database platform, designed to unleash the power of software and data for developers and their created applications. MongoDB leverages NoSQL to build on the existing foundation of relational databases so that organizations can effectively run mission critical applications. There are several strains of MongoDB: Cloud Manager, MongoDB Atlas, MongoDB Stitch, MongoDB Professional, and MongoDB Enterprise Advanced, all of which help run and provide support for developers utilizing the solution. The tool was also named one of the best free database software options of 2017.
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8. PipedriveProduct: Pipedrive |
With an impressive 581 reviews on G2 Crowd, Pipedrive is both a Leader in the CRM category and a leader within our New York-based products. Pipedrive is a sales management tool specifically built for small sales teams. With Pipedrive’s visual pipeline, sales managers can track deals and conversations, forecast accurately, and plan accordingly. Sales professionals can easily navigate and customize the CRM solution to better organize their contacts and prospects. Additionally, Pipedrive’s Marketplace provides applications that easily integrate with solutions like Asana, MailChimp, Trello, and Yesware. Pipedrive received a Leader badge in the Fall 2017 CRM Grid® Report. In July 2017, Pipedrive won the 2017 SalesTech award for best Sales Pipeline Management product.
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9. HarvestProduct: Harvest |
With an impressive 235 reviews on G2 Crowd, Harvest is a High Performer in the time tracking category and a leader within our New York-based products. For those businesses who rely on time tracking and timesheets to complete projects, estimate or ensure ROI, or simply track the productivity of each team member, Harvest is a helpful tool. Additionally, Harvest turns timesheet data into reports filled with actionable business insights. Freelancers and small businesses most benefit from the web-based software, but any-sized business can leverage Harvest. Harvest received a High Performer badge in the Fall 2016 Time Tracking Grid® Report.
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10. ArticulateProduct: Articulate Storyline |
With Articulate 360 Storyline, online course creators can easily create their entire training or other e-learning course, which will automatically be optimized to any tablet or mobile device the student accesses the course on. Storyline’s courses are interactive but don’t require coding to make engaging screencast video, simulations, or slides. Articulate Storyline received a Leader badge in the Summer 2016 Course Authoring Grid® Report. Storyline is a part of Articulate 360, a suite of solutions that simplifies and makes more efficient every aspect of e-learning course development.
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11. CloudBerry LabProduct: CloudBerry Backup |
CloudBerry Backup is a backup and disaster recovery solution based in the cloud. The solution integrates with major public cloud services such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. That means that while CloudBerry Backup itself doesn’t offer backup storage, it does provide secure backup storage with online storage providers. Users can access CloudBerry Backup on any operating system: Windows, Mac and Linux.
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12. BrainscapeProduct: Brainscape |
Brainscape is an education platform that utilizes digital flashcards to reinvent the way that people study and absorb knowledge. Flashcards can be made about any subject or training purpose and be accessed via web browser or mobile application. Students and employees can browse existing flashcards created by teachers and organizations, easily create flashcards for their own use, and collaborate with classmates and colleagues. Teachers and managers can create flashcards, track users’ progress and monitor overall levels of engagement.
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13. PhotoShelterProduct: Libris |
With an impressive 204 reviews on G2 Crowd, Libris is both a Leader in the digital asset management category and a leader within our New York-based products. Libris is a digital asset management platform that is built for visual media. The company built Libris to be simple and fast, as well as to empower teams and organizations of any size to store, organize, and share their visual and creative assets. Libris is cloud-based and flexible, with built-in enterprise search capabilities and unlimited admin access rights. Libris received a Leader badge in the Fall 2017 Digital Asset Management Grid® Report.
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14. DigitalOceanProduct: DigitalOcean |
With 140 reviews on G2 Crowd, Digital Ocean is both a Leader in the infrastructure as a service category and a leader within our New York-based products. DigitalOcean helps organizations effortlessly manage their infrastructure and control their virtual server. With DigitalOcean, engineering teams can quickly build, test and deploy applications at scale. The platform can integrate with existing DevOps tools in addition to providing an API and open-source libraries that developers can leverage. DigitalOcean received a Leader badge in the Fall 2017 Infrastructure as a Service Grid® Report.
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15. SkubanaProduct: Skubana |
Skubana is an all-in-one ERP systems portal that synchronizes, optimizes and simplifies the operations of e-commerce businesses. Through the automation of tedious but necessary aspects of e-commerce operations, merchants can focus on growing their business. Skubana provides analytics, order fulfillment and inventory management for high-volume merchants. Additionally, the platform integrates with a large number of e-commerce marketplaces, shipping providers and shopping carts.
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16. DovetaleProduct: Dovetale |
With Dovetale, marketers can more easily find influencers that are either relevant to their brand or are already engaged with their brand. The Dovetale platform matches influencers with brands and agencies through photo-matching; that is, it scours the web to find influencers who post similar content to those brands in search of influencers. In addition, users can monitor the market, better segment audiences and extract insights about the impact of campaigns. In this way, any company of any size can leverage Dovetale.
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17. SisenseProduct: Sisense |
With 120 reviews on G2 Crowd, Sisense is both a Leader in the business intelligence platforms category and a leader within our New York-based products. Sisense is an agile business intelligence platform that can easily be used by both data analysts and business-minded end users. With Sisense, organizations can better manage enormous amounts of disparate data through customized queries and visual dashboards. Sisense received Leader badges in the Winter 2018 Business Intelligence Platforms and Embedded Business Intelligence Grid®Reports. In July 2017, Sisense was named the best business intelligence tool and platform of 2017 in the 2017 Business Technology CODie Awards.
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18. SizmekProduct: Sizmek |
With an impressive 230 reviews on G2 Crowd, Sizmek is both a Leader in the cross-channel advertising category and a leader within our New York-based products. Sizmek is an independent ad server and works to harness the data of organizations for the purpose of creating personal, impactful advertising. Sizmek uses the power of AI to optimize targeted messages and impressions across multiple social media channels and types. Additionally, the platform’s AI can identify insights that can be turned into actionable intelligence. Sizmek received Leader badges in the Fall 2017 Cross-Channel Advertising, the Fall 2017 Video Advertising, the Spring 2017 Display Advertising, and the Spring 2017 Mobile Advertising Grid® Reports.
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19. JustworksProduct: Justworks |
With 44 reviews on G2 Crowd, Justworks is a High Performer in the core HR category and a leader within our New York-based products. With all-in-one Justworks, companies can minimize or eliminate the back-end complexities of running their business. Justworks automates payroll as well as streamlines daily HR responsibilities like onboarding new employees, managing PTO, and supporting government paperwork. Justworks received High Performer badges in the Fall 2017 Core HR and Fall 2017 Payroll Grid® Reports. In February 2017, the company was named one of the Top Company Cultures of 2017 by Entrepreneur and CultureIQ.
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20. Vbout.comProduct: Vbout.com |
Vbout is a marketing automation platform that increases the efficiency of businesses. With Vbout, marketers can create complete sales funnels, build customer journeys, and generate in-depth user profiles. Marketers can easily personalize email marketing campaigns via Vbout’s templates and then track their performance. Additionally, Vbout offers social media management capability. Vbout.com received a High Performer badge in the Fall 2017 Marketing Automation Grid® Report.
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21. Information BuildersProduct: Information Builders WebFOCUS |
With 85 reviews on G2 Crowd, Information Builders WebFOCUS is both a Leader in the business intelligence platforms category and a leader within our New York-based products. One of Information Builders’ solutions is WebFOCUS, a self-service business intelligence platform. With WebFOCUS, organizations can strategically deal with data, turning data into actionable insight. Additionally, the product is IT-friendly, which helps with ensuring security and scalability across time and function. WebFOCUS received Leader badges in the Winter 2018 Business Intelligence Platforms and Self-Service Business Grid® Reports.
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22. Acuity SchedulingProduct: Acuity Scheduling |
Acuity Scheduling is an online appointment scheduling solution that any business can utilize. The solution is actually an online assistant, available 24/7 to make the most of your organization’s internal and client-facing calendars. Acuity is simple, automatically adjusts for time zones, and collects client information in one singular place. Acuity integrates with tools like Xero, Squarespace, Stripe and GoToMeeting.
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23. HiveProduct: Hive |
Hive is transparent project management. With Hive, organizations can have a 360-degree view of operations as well as full visibility into project statuses. Hive helps team communicate with its messaging platform, which can be divided into groups, direct messages or automated update notifications. The solution allows for easy access to Box, Dropbox and Google Drive files. Hive received a High Performer badge in the Fall 2017 Team Collaboration Grid® Report.
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24. DigimindProduct: Digimind Social |
Digimind provides social media analytics for businesses; the platform listens and monitors across social media channels, to gather insight which can then fuel or alter business strategy. Through the collected data, businesses can pivot and accelerate towards digital transformation, conquering the market. Digimind Digimind has two products: Digimind Social and Digimind Intelligence, a sales intelligence product focused on how the data gathered through Digimind Social can be used for sales and ensuring the health of a business. Digimind Social received a High Performer badge in the Winter 2018 Social Media Suites, Winter 2018 Social Media Monitoring, and Winter 2018 Social Media Analytics Grid®Reports.
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25. GreenhouseProduct: Greenhouse |
With an impressive 117 reviews on G2 Crowd, Greenhouse is both a Leader in the applicant tracking systems category and a leader within our New York-based products. It offers features such as candidate searching, social sourcing and job posting. It hopes to help companies not only find talent fast, but find talent that fits. The company began with CEO Daniel Chait picking brains of other CEOs around the country, coming to the conclusion that recruiting and hiring were top issues. Reviewers say Greenhouse helps them run tighter strategies, as well as do away with manual or paper processes.
While we recognized only the 25 best-reviewed software exports from New York, there are still an abundance of other B2B tech companies impacting the region’s tech scene. Here’s a rundown of other New York B2B software companies with their founded dates and total funding.
For any questions about the methodology or data included in this piece, or to request that your New York B2B tech company be added, please reach out to Editorial Team Lead Jakub Rudnik at jrudnik@g2crowd.com.
Editor’s Note: Goverlan, which previously appeared as the No. 5 vendor on this list, has been removed because its new headquarters is in Coral Gables, Florida.
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