True. Anyone knows that if there's farmland in-between, startups can't be on a list together.
SF and the valley (or san jose as well) are often used interchangeably, yet:
1. They're in different counties (heck..the valley is even spread over multiple counties).
2. San Jose to SF is often over an hour (with traffic)
3. SF, Valley, San jose have very different vibes
4. Is Palo Alto (for example) a suburb of Fan Francisco or of San Jose?
What I'm trying to show is that it's typically called the "detroit area" for simplicity's sake. Just like "the valley" or "sf area" is often used to encompass SF to San Jose (and the east bay as well). It's more of a moniker for the region.
1. It's in a different county.
2. You're not really accounting for traffic, though my experiences were during the early 00's.
3. Ann Arbor was a completely different vibe than Detroit, or even a number of the suburbs.
4. Ann Arbor really isn't a suburb of Detroit. If you drive from Detroit to Ann Arbor, the suburbs give way to farmland before you all of the sudden end up in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area.