5,580,000 is intuitively a ridiculous number, and the reason they use it is that their definition of startup is incredibly lax. First, they're looking at busin

5,580,000 is intuitively a ridiculous number, and the reason they use it is that their definition of startup is incredibly lax. First, they're looking at businesses of all types, not just the scalable, tech-oriented businesses that we typically consider startups. The states with the most entrepreneurial activity, by their metric, were "Montana, Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma and Maine". Pretty clear we're not dealing with startups then. Second, they are counting (or attempting to, anyway) all businesses, incorporated or unincorporated. Everything from your neighbor's babysitter to Bechtolsheim's latest, I guess. So, pretty much worthless. But it did get our attention.