Category Archives: Maryland/DC

PowerDMS aids Baltimore PD

PowerDMS, an Orlando-based portfolio company of ours, has received widespread local and national news coverage for its efforts to help the Baltimore Police Department ensure officers see, know, and implement critical policies in critical moments.

Here is the story in the Orlando Sentinel, which includes an interview with PowerDMS CEO Josh Brown.

National print coverage included stories in The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun;  national television coverage included ABC News (“…the department will use web and smartphone applications to help make sure officers read and understand new rules.”) and Fox News (“Baltimore police to use apps for new policies.”)

Baltimore PD’s press conference included a 15-minute live demonstration of PowerDMS, run by the customer.  The local CBS Affiliate has footage of that press conference here.  (Scroll to the bottom of the story.)

This story is also an example of one of the best things about our business:  one of our companies doing well by doing good.  While this happens often, it rarely is highlighted so clearly (and broadly!).

Southeastern cities dominate Forbes Top 10 list

Our region took 9 out of the 10 top spots in Forbes’ list of The Next Big Boom Towns in the U.S.  The rankings were done in conjunction with Mark Schill at the Praxis Strategy Group, and are based on job growth, attractive lifestyle, ease of starting a business, and a broad range of demographic factors.

We do love Phoenix, but these are several of the cities we and our entrepreneurs call home.

1. Austin, TX
2. Raleigh, NC
3. Nashville, TN
4. San Antonio, TX
5. Houston, TX
6. Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV
7. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
8. Charlotte, NC-SC
9. Phoenix, AZ
10. Orlando, FL

SE states’ debt burdens more favorable

The New York Times confirms another reason for the Southeast’s attractive growth potential and why increasing numbers of entrepreneurs are deciding to build their businesses in the region:  lower state debt burdens.  As the attached graph shows, the problem worsens dramatically when one considers many states’ unfunded pension liabilities.  (Click thumbnail for “top” 25 states for debt-to-GDP, “Overloaded with Debts Unseen”.)

Not only will such debt levels likely lead to growth-stalling tax increases on the businesses that operate in those states, but some of the states are also responding in “desperate ways” which could undermine investor confidence and result in a credit squeeze similar to that currently experienced by Greece (and perhaps someday by other PIGS.)

State Debt Woes Grow Too Big to Camouflage

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay.

Complete NYTimes article here

Original American Enterprise Institute white paper here

UPDATE (3/31/10, 3:08PM):

Having had a chance to digest the original white paper, we are even more pleased than before to report that only one state – NE – has a lower debt-to-GDP % than FL (5th), GA (4th), TN (2nd), NC (3rd), TX and VA (tied for 6th).

Good news for startups in our region

Forbes reports that the nation’s professional classes continue to move to the Southeast and Texas:

Net migration, both before and after the Great Recession, according to analysis by the Praxis Strategy Group, has continued to be strongest to the predominately red states of the South and Intermountain West.

This seems true even for those seeking high-end jobs. Between 2006 and 2008, the metropolitan areas that enjoyed the fastest percentage shift toward educated and professional workers and industries included nominally “unhip” places like Indianapolis, Charlotte, N.C., Memphis, Tenn., Salt Lake City, Jacksonville, Fla., Tampa, Fla., and Kansas City, Mo.

The overall migration numbers are even more revealing. As was the case for much of the past decade, the biggest gainers continue to include cities such as San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. Rather than being oases for migrants, some oft-cited magnets such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago have all suffered considerable loss of population to other regions over the past year.

The venture capital industry started in the Northeast and is still largely based there and on the West Coast.  But given the relative attractiveness of the Southeastern and Texan economies for entrepreneurs, the future of the venture industry may be right here.