  We develop a notion of {\em inner rank} as a tool for obtaining lower bounds
on the rank of matrix multiplication tensors. We use it to give a short proof
that the border rank (and therefore rank) of the tensor associated with
$n\times n$ matrix multiplication over an arbitrary field is at least
$2n^2-n+1$. While inner rank does not provide improvements to currently known
lower bounds, we argue that this notion merits further study.
