The number of ways to choose 5 startups from 20 is given by the combination formula, which is often read as "20 choose 5". The formula for combinations is:
C(n, k) = \frac{n!}{k!(n-k)!}
where `n` is the total number of items, `k` is the number of items to choose, and `!` denotes factorial, which is the product of all positive integers up to that number.
So, in this case, we have:
C(20, 5) = \frac{20!}{5!(20-5)!}
Calculating this gives us 15,504.
So, there are 15,504 different ways to choose 5 startups from 20.