Most companies wouldn’t celebrate being ranked number 976 on any list, unless it’s the coveted Inc. magazine’s list of 5,000 top private companies in the country. Volo City—formerly Baltimore Social—earned a spot on the list for a 507 percent growth in just three years—not including its momentum in Boston and New York.

“If your company is on the Inc. 5000, it’s unparalleled recognition of your years of hard work and sacrifice,” said Inc. editor-in-chief James Ledbetter in a statement. “The lines of business may come and go or come and stay. What doesn’t change is the way entrepreneurs create and accelerate the forces that shape our lives.”

Volo City launched in 2010 as Baltimore Bocce with just 16 members. Its founder and CEO Giovanni Marcantoni says that earning a ranking on Inc.’s list proves how far dedication and determination can go. Today, there are more than 60,000 members in Baltimore alone participating in social sports including football, softball, kickball, corn hole, bocce, and Skee-Ball leagues.

“When we started this whole thing, we didn’t plan to be a business,” Marcantoni said. “It was more of a lifestyle that’s really evolved—taking it from adult social sports to now being able to solve a major problem by forming free, sustainable kids’ leagues.”

During this eight-year evolution, Volo City has expanded into seven cities across the country including Denver, New York, Charleston, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Boston with Baltimore being the home base. The Volo City Kids Foundation, founded in 2015, is also a major part of each of those cities’ programming that services more than 10,000 children nationally and also Marcantoni’s most prized accomplishment.

The kids’ leagues are made possible by the success of the adult sports’ leagues. The fees collected for those leagues are funneled into the foundation to provide equipment, shirts, and meals for the children. There are currently 14 leagues through the charity that serve all areas of Baltimore City.

“There is no barrier to entry—it’s free,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how good they are at the sport. Our program wants to take those barriers away. We don’t turn any kids away. Our goal is for every middle schooler in Baltimore is able to play and have access to it by 2020.”

A recent study by Sage Policy Group estimated that, by 2019, the economic impact of Volo City in Baltimore will exceed $20 million. The company also anticipates significant growth this year as well with the launch of new partnerships and state-of-the-art technology.

“Who would have thought that the Baltimore Bocce people would have made Inc. magazine’s top 5000 list,” Marcantoni said. “I think we have a lot of people that work hard and are really talented. I think that’s what makes our company different and special and that’s probably how we got here.”

When sifting through the 238 proposals from North American cities and regions, Amazon will see two bids from Baltimore that tell very different stories. According to Reuters, 54 states, provinces, districts, and territories applied to host the company’s second headquarters—a fate that would bring 50,000 jobs and tens of billions of dollars worth of investment to the winning bid. 

While the city’s Port Covington proposal comes with plenty of incentives, the Old Goucher neighborhood has also placed its hat in the ring. Located in the center of the city between Remington and Charles Village, the Old Goucher Community Association announced a completely independent bid last week. The proposal, “Center City Baltimore: Amazon’s Next Day One Neighborhood,” stresses the centrality of the area to restaurants, universities, and museums as a selling point.

“If [Amazon’s headquarters] come to Baltimore, I would be happy to have them in Port Covington or in Old Goucher,” said the community association’s president Kelly Cross. “We’ve been overlooked for decades. But when you look at the access that we have, you really can’t compare it to any other part of Baltimore.”

Among the recommended sites in the proposal are the stalled state center complex in West Baltimore and a prison complex on the east side of town. Although the Old Goucher community has major landmarks like MICA, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the University of Baltimore within walking distance, it’s hard to compete with the South Baltimore Port Covington site that is already slated to receive a $660 million TIF bond to start the project. The site is also expected to profit from more than $700 million in tax breaks.

An article published on Inc. magazine’s website last week said that the Port Covington site would be an ideal fit for Amazon’s HQ2 home. Writer Tom Popomaronis cited the flexibility of the 235-acre mixed-use space at Port Covington as one of the major factors that may sway Amazon’s decision. (That $233 million investment from Goldman Sachs didn’t hurt either.)

“Port Covington is bolted onto an existing city with an incredible, authentic history, deeply rooted in innovation that played a very strong part in American history,” he wrote. “To say that it’s compelling is an understatement.”

Tom Geddes, the CEO of Plank Industries, echoed the sentiment that Baltimore has the best foundation for a company like Amazon to build upon.

“Amazon might take a project in another city from 0-60, but with Baltimore, we expect them to take us from 50-90,” Geddes said in a statement. “We have significant momentum already and know the impact it will have on the city and region—Amazon would obviously be not only a huge accelerant to this, but also a beneficiary of it. You can feel the energy that already exists today which Amazon will inevitably fuel as they look to build their corporate culture on the East Coast.” 

In Maryland overall, other bids were submitted from Prince George’s, Howard, and Montgomery counties. And, while Port Covington certainly has plenty of merits, Cross said we shouldn’t count Old Goucher out just yet. On a recent visit to Google’s headquarters in New York City’s Midtown, he noticed a trend among major corporations that may give his community the extra push it needs for consideration.

“Tech companies are moving to that center city area,” he said. “One of the problems that Baltimore has had is that we haven’t been really focused on putting jobs and capital in the city core where it can really have the massive ripple effect everywhere.”