Hi all, John here. Welcome to today’s special edition of Urban Tech! Rather than share these updates in a regular edition, I wanted to dedicate a full edition to share some exciting updates from Urban Tech and some of my learnings since starting the newsletter in early June.
My goal for starting Urban Tech was to satisfy what I felt was missing from the current conversation about cities and the innovation economy. I wanted something that would talk about these ideas in a thoughtful way. Trust me, I looked all over the place for a publication like Urban Tech. There are plenty of incredibly talented folks covering the spaces - real estate, transportation, politics, etc. - but not in a way that I wanted — so I built it. Urban Tech is the culmination of the idea and I knew there would at least be 1 person reading it; me.
Now Urban Tech has thousands of views, and over 200 subscribers. Urban Tech’s average open rate is 60%. You can see our growth below. Yes, I did have a Substack account for quite some time before publishing. You can see we’ve grown at a rapid pace.
Our readers include: political staffers in D.C., New York, Texas and California; reporters at publications like The Wall Street Journal, Buzzfeed, Morning Brew, Axios, The Information, Forbes, and more; startup founders and employees at companies in real estate and tech; leading urban affairs academics; investors at leading VC and startup accelerators like Metaprop; real estate brokers at firms like CBRE and JLL; and many more I have no idea who they are but I’m sure are super cool.
Cities are the economic engines of our time and the atoms of the modern economy. We all have some stake in if they prosper or if they fail citizens.
I created Urban Tech to reach the people who make decisions that will impact cities in the decades to come. I think we can all play a crucial role to ensure our cities are set up for success for the next generation. I’m very optimistic for the future.
Now, for some big updates from Urban Tech. First, we officially are a registered LLC now and are a real company. This will help me continue to evolve Urban Tech and make it as useful to you as possible.
Secondly, we are launching consulting services for Urban Tech. I worked for 3 years in political and media consulting before Urban Tech and I really enjoy working with smart people on big ideas. If your company is looking for help in media strategy, messaging, policy analysis, content writing or the alike services, shoot me an email at John@urbantechnews.net. You can also book time with me to chat through Calendly. Working with me on consulting projects does not guarantee coverage in Urban Tech.
Also, a final reminder starting on Thursday, Urban Tech will be publishing in a new time slot of 5:30-7:30 AM PT.
Talk soon! ✌️
JT