At a Savills event in May, Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of Partnership for New York City, noted last year there was a 21% drop in foreign immigration. She called this “a threat to the city.”

Piol agrees. He notes the federal government has made immigration more difficult, reducing the number of visas available, even for experts. “When it comes to having brilliant people that graduate from US universities, I think we should do our best to keep the talent in the country because that talent will help us grow further and develop new inventions,” he says. “Many times if you look at the successful companies that were created, they were created by immigrants. And we don't want to lose that. It's a big mistake not to address this.”

Piol also supports government creating initiatives to foster businesses. The book describes former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's strategic efforts to diversify New York City's economy following the financial crisis of 2008.

“New York was hit quite badly because New York is a center for global financial services. So Bloomberg at that time decided to think what other industries, other areas that can be fostered and helped so that will provide some other growth,” he comments. Piol adds that New York's being so dependent on financial services was just too risky. He describes how tech startups came to New York in the 90s. But after the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, there was a rebirth of the tech industry.

He states in the past 10 to 12 years, technology has become an important component of New York. The venture capitalist points out how technology continues to grow in its application to other existing industries. He lists financial services, life sciences, media, advertising and cyber security as examples.

But Piol also acknowledges booming businesses while feeding real estate growth can also drive up rent. And affordable housing and office space are critical to fueling the virtuous cycle.

“Tech and the City” addresses this with tech entrepreneur Rohan Deuskar, who started Stylitics. He laments how expensive office space has become. The book quotes Deuskar saying, “The biggest challenge for a startup is to find space of any sort whether it is apartments for the founders and employees or offices.”

On the flip side, the book quotes angel investor David Tisch acknowledging New York is expensive and space is scare. However Tisch says, “You should be able to figure out how to live here. You should be able to figure out where to work here.” He adds the space challenges are an overrated problem and people can hustle and find cheap spaces. Tisch is quoted saying, “[I]t's a pain … but it's your job, just do it! Nobody wants to baby people in New York.”

In the GlobeSt.com podcast interview above, AlphaPrime's managing partner says where he comes out on these opposing views. He also addresses much more including what stereotypical venture capital is like in New York versus in California. Piol points to where the geographic core of Silicon Alley traditionally lies in Manhattan and where he's seeing it grow.

With co-author Italian journalist Maria Teresa Cometto, Piol interviewed over 60 people to pull together the comprehensive book that's also a quick read. He ends the GlobeSt.com interview describing what makes people stay in a city—and make it their home.