Tech Brew Ride Home: Conversation with Tech:NYC CEO Julie Samuels

Podcast: Tech Brew Ride Home
Guest: Julie Samuels (CEO, Tech:NYC)
Date: September 6, 2025
Length: ~54 minutes

Episode Overview

This episode features an engaging conversation with Julie Samuels, CEO of Tech:NYC, about her journey from early internet days at NCSA, her legal and advocacy work at EFF, and the broader evolution of New York City's technology sector. The discussion provides a rich oral history of tech, media, and policy change from the late 1990s to today, and explores what makes New York City’s tech scene unique compared to Silicon Valley.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Internet & Journalism Roots

• NCSA Internship and Internet Beginnings:
  Julie recounts her time as a communications intern at NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications), where Marc Andreessen and others helped create Mosaic, the first graphical web browser. She notes she stumbled into tech by accident:
  • "Like many people's tech and internet history, mine was somewhat accidental." (01:47, Julie Samuels)
• Tech Scene in the Late 1990s:
  NCSA was a hub of internet talent but very academic and under-the-radar. Julie remembers the “geeky geek” atmosphere and the lingering drama around talent that left for startups like Netscape and Spyglass.
  • She also highlights the infrastructure challenges:
    "My senior year in college was the first time that I had fiber to my apartment." (06:42, Julie Samuels)
• Transition to Digital Media:
  Julie describes her early digital media role “in the attic” at Scripps Howard’s Knoxville News Sentinel, digitizing news for newspapers—a “skunk works” isolated from traditional newsroom prestige.
  • "We were like the bastard stepchildren of the newspaper." (09:43, Julie Samuels)
• First Amendment & Law:
  Her academic interests in journalism and First Amendment law, especially surrounding CDA 230 and early internet regulation, set a foundation for her later legal work.

2. Early Web to Policy Battles

• Evolution of Digital Newsrooms:
  In her first full-time job at NationalJournal.com (2000), Julie observed the physical and cultural segregation between traditional and digital staff, and the slow shift as “internet people” gained influence:
  • "We moved into a new, fancier office in, in the District." (11:58, Julie Samuels)
  • "People were resisting the change." (14:55, Julie Samuels)
• Dot-Com Bust Cultural Shift:
  Julie notes that for her younger cohort, the internet wasn’t a fad—they were true believers, even as others cheered the bubble’s end.
• Rise of Internet Optimism:
  Julie recalls the profound optimism of early tech and “the moment the lightbulb went on” about real-time news and the internet’s power:
  • "We were all really, frankly, we were really early to think about a lot of those things." (15:29, Julie Samuels)

3. From EFF to Tech Policy Leadership

• Electronic Frontier Foundation Experience:
  Julie describes EFF as her “dream job,” allowing her to combine First Amendment advocacy with copyright/trademark and software patent battles:
  • "EFF was the dream job because I was really interested in the First Amendment. I was really interested in what freedom of speech and the free flow of information looked like on the Internet." (19:50-20:27, Julie Samuels)
  • She led efforts against “patent trolls,” notably the high-profile podcasting patent troll case (“Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents”).
• Tech’s Mainstreaming and Arab Spring:
  She recounts the rapid mainstreaming of the internet—the iPhone, Facebook, and pivotal events like the Arab Spring—creating a sense that technology was unleashing democracy and positive change globally.
  • "We are. This is it. You know, this is what we came here to do. Like, it's all happening right now. And God, it was an amazing time." (24:12, Julie Samuels)

4. Reflection on Optimism, Naivety, and Legacy

• Idealism vs. Realism:
  Both interviewer and guest reflect on the “naivety” and “idealism” of the early 2010s tech optimism and the later realization of technology’s risks:
  • "I was naive." (25:23, Julie Samuels)
  • "I thought the Arab Spring happened and I thought it was done. ... Democracy just won forever." (25:24, Julie Samuels)
  • Julie embraces New York’s grounded approach to tech, noting that the city fosters a critical, less myopic perspective.

5. New York City vs. Silicon Valley — What’s Unique?

• Cultural and Structural Differences:

  • "In the Valley, you met people who were tech people who lived in the Valley. In New York you meet New Yorkers who work in tech." (27:24, Julie Samuels)
  • New York tech workers often have ties to other industries or personal reasons for staying, resulting in a more diverse, “stacked” tech culture.
  • The city’s stack of world-class sectors—finance, media, fashion, health care—enables unique cross-pollination and rapid experimentation.
    • "If you work in tech in New York, someone at some point has asked you, why aren't you in the Valley? And you have an answer that probably doesn't have to do with work." (28:20, Julie Samuels)

• Application Layer & Early Internet Era:
  Julie sees the West Coast as the origin of the application layer that made the internet mass-accessible, but that time of “heads-down building in a vacuum” is over—regulators, competitors, and society now pay close, early attention.

  • "The days of just like heads down build in a vacuum, like that's just not happening again." (33:33, Julie Samuels)
  • New York’s integrated, cross-sector, and social structure is well suited to the new, more scrutinized tech environment.

6. Founding of Tech:NYC

• Origins & Motivation:
  Tech:NYC emerged from conversations among key tech and civic leaders (Fred Wilson, Tim Armstrong, Kevin Ryan, etc.) after Bloomberg’s mayoralty, seeking to represent and organize the NYC tech sector.

  • Julie was considered a strong candidate due to her advocacy experience and because she was “like Switzerland”—connected, but not owned by any one faction (39:48, Julie Samuels).
  • The group prioritized creating a “big tent” organization inclusive of major employers and homegrown startups (Etsy, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Warby Parker, etc.), not just West Coast tech giants.

• Political Recognition:
  Launching with a high-profile New York Times article and a packed event, Tech:NYC quickly established itself as a key constituency within local politics.

  • "A lot of people in New York politics really took us seriously after that night because [they] realized you were a constituency that mattered." (42:12, Interviewer)
  • Julie emphasizes the unique challenge/advantage: many large tech players have substantial NYC footprints, but are not headquartered here.
    • "People in New York are used to having the CEOs sit here in other industries." (43:11, Julie Samuels)

7. The Changing Policy Landscape and Community Impact

• Policy Advocacy Successes:
  Julie highlights Tech:NYC’s and NYC companies' pivotal roles in critical internet battles like SOPA/PIPA and net neutrality.
• Current Mission:
  Today, Tech:NYC advances policy and ecosystem support to ensure NYC remains a great place to build tech companies—working with city/state government to influence tech-related legislation and broader civic issues (public safety, schools, transit, etc.) that impact the ability to attract and retain talent.
  • "We do a bunch of work to ensure that New York City is the best place to build and grow a tech company." (46:41, Julie Samuels)
  • "The bargain is the companies will want to be here if the people they want to hire are here." (47:16, Julie Samuels)
• The “Inevitability” of Tech as NYC’s Dominant Industry:
  Though difficult to define, Julie sees tech becoming (or already being) the city’s foundational sector—but it must support and uplift all New Yorkers.
  • "We want to make sure that that transition lifts as many boats as possible." (49:03, Julie Samuels)

8. The Future — Tech’s Social/Civic Role in NYC

• Hope for 2030 and Beyond:
  Julie envisions a future where NYC’s government is tech-fluent and tech companies (and workers) are true civic partners.

  • "I hope that New York City and New York State government are using technology well for New Yorkers, that local government is working and ... that the tech employers ... are really good partners to the city and the state." (49:41, Julie Samuels)

• Advice for Founders & Getting Involved:

  • Subscribe to Tech:NYC’s daily email for both tech news and cross-cutting civic information.
  • "You should literally just reach out to Tech NYC. We're a pretty small team ... and this is what we live to do. We live to plug tech people into the civic infrastructure of the city." (51:53, Julie Samuels)
  • Even if you arrive in New York “with just the clothes on your back,” you now have an entry point: Tech:NYC.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Tech vs. NYC Tech Culture:
  “In the Valley, you met people who were tech people who lived in the Valley. In New York you meet New Yorkers who work in tech.”
  (27:24, Julie Samuels)

• On Tech’s Inevitable Rise in NYC:
  “It is inevitable that tech will be, if it isn't already, the biggest industry in the city. ... Every company is a tech company. Like, say what? Say however you want to say it, right?”
  (43:10 & 49:01, Julie Samuels)

• On Idealism in Early Tech:
  “I thought the Arab Spring happened and I thought it was done. You know, I thought like democracy just won forever ... and clearly history tells a different story.”
  (25:24, Julie Samuels)

• On Building Tech:NYC:
  “Sometimes I think of myself like an accidental founder. Also, one day I was like, oh, my God, I think I'm starting this organization. Like, what? What just happened here?”
  (39:56, Julie Samuels)

• On Tech:NYC’s Value Proposition:
  “We spend our time at Tech:NYC thinking about what that means for New York politically, what that means culturally, what does that mean civically, what does it mean philanthropically? ... We want to make sure that that transition lifts as many boats as possible.”
  (49:03, Julie Samuels)

Timestamps by Segment

| Time | Segment / Topic | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------| | 00:23 | Julie’s intro, NCSA background, accidental entry to tech| | 01:17 | Journalism major, role at NCSA, Internet late 90s | | 06:24 | Infrastructure: transition from dial-up to fiber | | 09:43 | Scripps Howard digital news internship in Knoxville | | 11:26 | Early workplace cultural divide for internet teams | | 12:59 | Newsletter workflow: the “true believers” era | | 17:01 | Arrival in/attachment to NYC post-9/11 | | 18:23 | EFF, First Amendment, software patents | | 21:56 | Arab Spring, SOPA/PIPA, podcasting trolls | | 24:58 | Reflection on optimism and naivety of early 2010s tech | | 27:24 | New York vs. Silicon Valley: cultural difference | | 30:08 | NYC’s industry “stack” advantage | | 34:04 | NYC will never be a one-industry town | | 35:16 | Founding Tech:NYC: early meetings, motivations | | 41:32 | Tech:NYC launch, NYC politics recognition | | 43:11 | The challenge of tech giants’ presence vs. HQ | | 44:32 | Policy milestones: SOPA/PIPA, net neutrality | | 46:33 | Tech:NYC’s core activities and civic focus | | 49:41 | NYC’s tech future vision for 2030 & civic integration | | 51:13 | How founders and listeners can get involved | | 52:57 | Parting thoughts – building support in NYC |

Summary

Julie Samuels offers an accessible, reflective history of the NYC tech community and her personal evolution from journalistic explainer at NCSA, through legal activism at EFF, to civic champion as CEO of Tech:NYC. The episode is candid about tech’s shifts from optimism to realism, and about the singular “stacked” nature of NYC’s tech scene—where companies and founders are drawn as much by the city’s cultural and industry breadth as by its technical opportunities. Listeners get both an inspiring oral history and a practical call-to-action: NYC tech is everybody's concern, and Tech:NYC is ready to help you plug in.

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