UPDATE: Amazon just told you the top 20 cities for business investment in North America

Surely you heard about Amazon's announcement of their intentions to build a second company headquarters, the so-called HQ2, in the coming years, and the widely covered RFP process to help them identify candidates (cities and regions), for this new HQ2. I wrote about the process last October here.

Over 238 cities submitted bids to become the home of HQ2, and this week, Amazon named a short list of 20 cities that have made it to the second round of consideration, where Amazon will work more closely with these cities to dive deeper into the proposals, to get additional information, and to winnow down the list to the eventual winner - the home of the new HQ2.

This is a big deal for these 20 contenders - $5B in investments and as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs.

Here's the list of cities that made the short list, as well as a map showing the 20 - more on that in a bit.

Atlanta, GA

Austin, TX 

Boston, MA 

Chicago, IL 

Columbus, OH 

Dallas, TX 

Denver, CO 

Indianapolis, IN 

Los Angeles, CA 

Miami, FL 

Montgomery County, MD 

Nashville, TN 

Newark, NJ 

New York City, NY 

Northern Virginia, VA

Philadelphia, PA 

Pittsburgh, PA 

Raleigh, NC 

Toronto, ON 

Washington DC 

 

Kind of the 'usual suspects' list I suppose, but a couple of things stand out for me.

One, nothing in the NorCal/Silicon Valley area. Probably a couple of reasons for this. Amazon has always seemed to indicate that it wanted more of a geographical balance between its current Seattle HQ and the eventual HQ2, pointing to a midwest or eastern location as a more likely selection. And two, I wonder if Amazon just wants no part of the already overheated market for talent, real estate, and inflated cost of living that comes with the Valley.

Also, from the long list of 238, which certainly included a lot of places that had no real chance at meeting Amazon's requirements for population, talent availability, access to transportation hubs, etc., the final 20 does not include even one true 'outlier', a real longshot location that would have at least made things interesting, (if you are a betting person, anyway). Pretty much any of the 20 on the short list would seem reasonable should they eventually win the bid and become the home of HQ2.

Finally, in case you or your leadership were wondering just what were the best locations in North America to consider a similar, major investment, well, Amazon might have done the first wave of analysis and due diligence for you. You can almost look at the Top 20 list from Amazon as a starting point and work from there. And believe me, even the 19 cities that don't win this bid will remind you and everyone that they were a finalist for one of the largest US corporate investment initiatives ever.

And since everything is more fun when there is something on the line, I present Steve's opening odds for each of the 20 finalists to be named the home of the new HQ2.

Atlanta, GA - 4/1

Austin, TX - 5/1

Boston, MA - 7/1

Chicago, IL - 8/1

Columbus, OH - 25/1

Dallas, TX - 10/1

Denver, CO - 12/1

Indianapolis, IN - 20/1

Los Angeles, CA - 15/1

Miami, FL - 15/1

Montgomery County, MD - 20/1

Nashville, TN - 25/1

Newark, NJ - 20/1

New York City, NY - 10/1

Northern Virginia, VA - 15/1

Philadelphia, PA - 12/1

Pittsburgh, PA - 12/1

Raleigh, NC - 10/1

Toronto, ON - 20/1

Washington DC - 15/1

Reminder: These odds are presented for entertainment purposes only, please, no wagering.

Have a great day!

CHART OF THE DAY: Surging Investments in HR Tech

Really a simple and self-explanatory Chart of the Day for a busy Tuesday, this one courtesy of the Wall St. Journal. Take a look at the chart of venture capital investment in the HR and Recruiting technology market from 1998 to the present, and as you expect and demand, some FREE commentary from me after the data.

Some quick takes:

1. First, to level set, the first half of 2015 with investment of about $811M is almost greater than the highest-ever yearly total of $859M back in 2000. Ah, 2000. The 'dot-com' era.  Good times.  But looking at the data you could argue that the HR tech market for VC investment really did not recover from the dot-com crash until very recently, like last year. So it could be that a prolonged period of under-investment is partially to account for the dramatic increases in 2014 and so far in 2015.

2. Let's go ahead and assume that most VCs have plenty of options and opportunities for investment. If that is the case, then this windfall of money flowing into the HR tech space is good news for a large array of industry players - folks who can sell HR tech solutions, marketers, analyst firms, HR conferences, and even little 'ol bloggers like me, who have lots of products to see, think about, and potentially write about.  It is a sure sign of an industry that is primed for growth when the investment levels are surging upwards as we see in the WSJ. It's like the dot-com years all over again. At least let's hope we don't crash like we did from '02 - '04.

3. What does this mean for the really important players in the HR tech market - the actual customers? Well in the broadest strokes it is mostly positive. More investment creates more competition which leads to better products and more customer choices. And while sometimes it seems like in HR tech that the bigger, more established players have gobbled up via acquisition many of the new entrants, I can assure you that judging from the number of HR tech startup demos I have been doing that there is no shortage of new ideas and innovation in the space.  This is a great time to be a customer of HR Tech, even if the market can be a little tricky to navigate.

But like I said, good times all around - for the VCs, for the startups, and most importantly, for the customers and HR leaders who have access to an ever-expanding set of tools and technologies to help them improve results in their organizations.

SPORTS WEEK #1 - The futures market for your career

Note to readers: As I have had a really busy Summer and early Fall preparing for the now recently concluded HR Technology Conference, the posting frequency here has been pretty diminished lately. Additionally, I find myself well behind my regular number of 'sports' posts that form the basis of my contribution to the annual 8 Man Rotation E-book on sports and HR. So I have declared this week of October 21 to be 'Sports Week' on the blog. I'm shooting for 5 days of sports-themed posts to make sure I don't get dropped from the 8 Man crew. So if sports takes are not your thing, check back in a week of so, when I will probably have another equally inane theme working.

Onward...

Last week a really unusual story dropped about NFL Houston Texans player Arian Foster's plan to essentially 'go public' and have a personal Initial Public Offering. Through a sports management company called Fantex, the plan is for Foster to float shares in himself that would enable investors to have a claim on 20% of his future career earnings.  Fantex is looking to sell as much as $10 million in Foster equity, taking a half million fee for themselves for the trouble. It is also a pretty good deal for Foster, (assuming the $10M in shares gets snatched up). He gets essentially an advance on $10M of future earnings he may or may not even realize. The shelf-life of NFL players, even top stars like Foster, is notoriously short. One bad step or rough tackle to the knees and the newly 'listed' Foster might not earn another dollar in the NFL.

While the Arian Foster story is kind of a goof, and one that seems to only have even a chance of actually working due to his notoriety and fame, it did get me thinking about the feasibility of similar career earnings investment schemes for 'normal' people.

Would there be a potential market for shares of your future career earnings for example? Could you convince someone to invests $50 or $100 in you today with the promise of a potential windfall as you climb the corporate ladder or start up the next big App that all the kids will be using next year?

And if the market for 'you' might not be so hot, how about your kids? The ones that you are going to have to help get through college and are likely to end up back in their middle-school bedrooms with you after they graduate? Could you maybe help them float an IPO that just might raise enough money to put them in a 2007 Camry and a studio apartment downtown so you can finally create that game room in your house you have been dreaming about since 1995?

The Foster story is basically absurd and it probably won't amount to much, but it does make you think about your own career a little bit I think. 

If you actually were a publicly tradable security what would your market look like?

Would there be an intense battle by investors to get in on your IPO action?

What would your ticker symbol be?

Have some extra cash laying around? Don't try and bring it to a bank

From today's NY Times a sign that perhaps for corporations and individuals that even caution, restraint, and endless 'waiting for more clarity before we do anything with our money', may also be losing effectiveness as a strategy or hedge against tough economic conditions:

The article titled: In Cautious Times, Banks Flooded With Cash, describes the plight of some bankers large and small from across the country that faced with shrinking interest rate spreads, (which reduce profits), general reduction in demand for loans and loan products, and a public increasingly seeking 'safe' havens for cash stores, have collected too much cash in the form of deposits, and are even beginning to refuse or discourage customers from giving them more.

From the Times piece:

Bankers have an odd-sounding problem these days: they are awash in cash.

Droves of consumers and businesses unnerved by the lurching markets have been taking their money out of risky investments and socking it away in bank accounts, where it does little to stimulate the economy.

Though financial institutions are not yet turning away customers at the door, they are trying to discourage some depositors from parking that cash with them. With fewer attractive lending and investment options for that money, it is harder for the banks to turn it around for a healthy profit.

So the banks, at least some of them as indicated in the Times piece, can't really make a meaningful profit with all the excess cash and deposits that have come in. While the piece doesn't really try to make us sympathetic towards the bankers and the banking industry, (good luck with that), it does at least seem to indicate that for a few banks anyway, they'd rather play by the rules and at least try to steer some deposits to more productive ends compared to pretty much driven down to zero return traditional deposit accounts.

While the safe havens for cash may not have stopped being safe, at least some of them have become unavailable due to overcrowding. 

The giant cash reserves that many US organizations are sitting on have been well-reported in the last year or so, but this is the first time that I've noticed reports that even the 'sit on all our cash until times get better' strategy might have some practical problems actually being executed.

If the local bank doesn't want your cash, then maybe just maybe, it's time to think of some more creative ways to use those 'unwanted' funds.

It's pretty likely at least one employee out there has a great idea for a new product, improved service, enhanced process - something that could use a little seed money to explore further.

I'll bet you have lots of loyal, solid performing employees that have not seen a raise or bonus of any kind in several years, they might find something to do with a few extra dollars around this holiday season.

And chances are about 100% if you have a job opening at your company you have no shortage of applicants. Hire the one with the best attitude and spend the money to train them how to do the job, rather than waiting for the 'perfect' candidate to walk in. 

The easiest money to spend is other people's money, I get that. But when even the bank won't take your money, it seems to me like their are lots of organizations that could use this advice.

Is your organization sitting on a pile of cash? What needs to happen to stop hoarding and start investing?