Nominate Your Startup for Startup of the Year 2021

Great question and there are a few reasons why! Firstly, we wanted to cater to what people search for and target some local SEO keywords as part of the campaign.

Even before this project when I would research the startup scenes, I found myself (and based on keyword research others do the same) searching things like "Startups in Tokyo" rather than "Startups in Japan".

Next, we wanted to give recognition to both larger and smaller startup communities. Yes, we could've went with "Startups in California" but what are the chances that the top startups would all be based in San Franscisco? Probably quite high right? The startups in San Diego, San Jose, and even much smaller cities that deserve recognition too!

Also, we could've went "state-level", but when you look at how other countries segment their areas, it'll get ridiculously complicated. Take Japan (where I am) for example. Japan has regions: Kanto, Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kyushu, which are then divided into prefectures: Tokyo, Gifu, Iwate, Hokkaido (yes some regions double as prefectures). Those prefectures are then divided into "cities" which sometimes (in the case of Tokyo) also double as a prefecture.

I hope that is enough confusion to illustrate how complicated this project would have been if we tried to go Startups by State/Region. Every country segments themselves differently.