⛵Dhow Dispatch │ Why Mamdani may be good for founders

New York City elected Zohran Mamdani on November 4, 2025. He is a democratic socialist, a New York State Assemblyman, 34 years old, the first Muslim mayor of the city, and the youngest mayor of New York City in over a century. He previously defeated a five-term incumbent to enter the Assembly in 2020. Turnout exceeded two million, and he won decisively over Curtis Sliwa and Andrew Cuomo.

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This is a historic win for entrepreneurship and a signal that the city’s coalition wants a different operating model. Mamdani’s rise was fast and grounded in everyday issues that matter to people who build and work in small companies. We at Dhow want to challenge the narrative that Mamdani is bad for business.

Unlike prior administrations that arrived with a pre-written innovation plan, this one does not. That is an opportunity for operators. As Bradley Tusk framed it:

The mayor-elect has already shown openness to input. In July 2025, he joined a fireside chat with about 200 founders and investors hosted by the Partnership for New York City, Tech: NYC, and AlleyCorp. To WIRED, he said there are parallels between the startup ethos and his politics: ambition, a refusal to accept the status quo, and a desire to innovate and disrupt.

In New York City, nearly 40% of small businesses reported needing to hire a private “expeditor” to help them navigate city bureaucracy, which increased operating costs and complexity.

Halving bureaucratic costs
A pledge to cut small business fines and fees by 50 percent, lower the $1,000 new business registration fee, and put about $10 million back into merchants’ hands. For early teams, that is real runway.

Permitting that moves
Fast tracked permits, a single online intake, assigned case managers, and eliminating permit fees for nonprofits and small businesses for street events.

BEST funding that actually scales
An increase in Business Express Service Teams funding to $25 million. This is a 500 percent jump and turns BEST into a concierge for teams stuck in compliance.

A cleanup of outdated rules
A target to eliminate more than 6,000 regulations that strangle small enterprises, paired with dedicated case managers. Finance professor Mariano Torras notes this responds to a wave of small businesses priced out by regulation that favors large corporations and real estate developers.

Anil Dash, a prominent tech entrepreneur who has been part of NYC's tech community for over 20 years and helped found half a dozen companies, wrote a comprehensive endorsement titled "Zohran Mamdani is the leader NYC needs for innovation and entrepreneurship". Dash emphasized that Mamdani's solidarity with taxi workers (participating in a 15-day hunger strike that helped win over $350 million in debt relief for taxi drivers) epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit.

Housing as a talent strategy
The Center for Urban Future calls improved housing affordability the number one need for continued tech growth. A rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments, which are 28 percent of NYC housing, is on the table. A Zillow and Tech: NYC study found that an entry-level tech worker could afford only 2.1 percent of studio and one-bedroom apartments in NYC. Mamdani’s debate answer to the Dallas question was simple: make the city affordable so people who want to work here can actually do it. During a mayoral debate, when asked how he'd convince tech CEOs concerned about corporate tax increases to build in NYC instead of Dallas, Mamdani responded: "We are going to make this city more affordable, so the workers who want to work at those companies can actually be able to do so". This worker-first approach resonates because founder success depends on accessing deep talent pools, not just favorable tax treatment for executives.

Transit, childcare, and basics
Dash notes that if workers are at risk or the community is at risk, companies can't succeed. Mamdani's agenda includes free bus services, universal childcare, and infrastructure investments; focusing on the unglamorous but critical services that enable employees to show up consistently and perform at their best. Business consultant Yasser Salem, who assembled a CEO advisory council for Mamdani, reports that "initiatives like free childcare can alleviate the stress and challenges their employees face, which hinder productivity". He notes many CEOs have acknowledged this reduces operational friction.

Bradley Tusk has outlined a founder-friendly innovation agenda that Mamdani could adopt, transforming NYC into a "testbed for startups solving public problems":​

AI Sandboxes for Regulated Innovation: Launch regulatory sandboxes for digital health, fintech, and govtech startups, allowing controlled experimentation within well-defined parameters. Regulatory sandboxes have proven successful globally, as seen when the UK's Financial Conduct Authority launched Project Innovate in 2015, and Singapore's Monetary Authority launched their fintech sandbox in 2016. This approach lets founders test innovative products in production environments while maintaining consumer protections.​

AI to Modernize City Services: Deploy AI copilots for 311, automated benefits screening, and LLMs for legal and procurement operations. These aren't just efficiency gains; they also create massive B2G (business-to-government) contract opportunities for NYC-based startups. Less bureaucracy means more throughput for both government and the companies serving it.​

Autonomous Vehicles and Drone Infrastructure: Establish clear frameworks for AVs, robot delivery, and drone-based building inspections. First-mover advantage in regulatory clarity could position NYC as the East Coast hub for autonomous mobility startups.​

Vocational Tech Pathways: Expanding non-traditional pathways into tech jobs through vocational tech schools broadens the talent pipeline beyond elite universities. For founders struggling to find mid-level engineers and technical operators, this creates a sustainable talent ecosystem

Tech Policy Press contributor Rebecca Williams argues the administration should build public technology infrastructure and protect residents from surveillance capitalism. Lina Khan on the transition team signals that tech will be central.

The coalition around this is broader than the usual suspects.

Nearly half of New Yorkers have considered leaving because of costs. That is an existential risk to NYC’s position as the second-largest startup ecosystem. The agenda here creates an arbitrage for founders. Access NYC’s density of talent, capital, and culture without the crushing cost burden that pushed teams to Austin, Miami, and Boulder. The platform includes:

Small business voices echo this. Baton CEO Chat Joglekar expects a push for equitable entrepreneurship and local reinvestment. Harlem shop owner Kadjahtou Balde says the win gives her a reason to believe she can thrive here.

NYC chose a builder’s mandate. We are bullish on Mamdani because his affordability first, small business focus matches Dhow’s thesis: back operators solving real problems and giving them a community of investors who move with them. This agenda lowers the cost of building, widens the talent funnel, and opens regulated testbeds that help useful products reach the market faster. Dhow’s role is to channel that momentum: organize founder briefs, mobilize our investor base, and help stand up pilots that show impact in weeks, not years. If we execute together, NYC becomes the flagship market for values-aligned founders and the community that believes in them.

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