BUSINESS STRATEGY
Understand the Market Landscape
Market Sizing & Segmentation
Estimate the total and addressable market, segment it by customer needs or behaviour, and prioritize where you can realistically compete. Market sizing supports both internal planning and investor credibility.
Why it's Matters
You can’t build a scalable strategy if you don’t understand the true size and shape of your market. Many startups overestimate their TAM (Total Addressable Market) or aim too vaguely, which is leading to product drift, mispositioning, or GTM mismatches. Grounding your strategy in reality starts here.
What You Need to Do
Quantify your market opportunity with realistic sizing
Segment the market to focus on where you can actually win
Connect your opportunity to investor logic (if fundraising is in view)
How to Approach It
Clarify which market you’re in and why that matters
Is your market well-defined? Or are you creating a category?
If it’s ambiguous, describe the shift that you are part of (e.g., from “CRM” to “revenue orchestration”)
Size the market in three layers:
TAM (Total Addressable Market): the full universe
SAM (Serviceable Available Market): the slice your product can serve
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): what you can realistically capture in 3-5 years
Use public data, adjacent benchmarks, or bottoms-up calculations
Top-down: Market research reports, industry data
Bottom-up: (# target customers) × (average annual contract value)
Segment your market:
By company size, vertical, use case, geography
Look for patterns in adoption, pain, willingness to pay
Connect this analysis to your focus:
Where is the low-hanging fruit?
Where is the long-term upside?
Which segment should drive your roadmap, sales, and messaging now?
Deliverables
TAM, SAM, SOM figures with assumptions
Clear market segmentation schema
Summary slide or narrative: “Here’s our opportunity and here’s where we’ll focus first”
How to Tell if You Got It Right
Your team has a shared view of what market you’re in
Your GTM and product plans are clearly focused on a specific segment
You can explain your growth potential in a way that resonates with investors and partners
What to Watch Out For
Using inflated TAM numbers to impress investors: they don’t buy it
Skipping SOM and ending up with a plan that can’t be executed
Targeting all segments at once
Failing to adapt to changing market conditions (e.g., AI surge, regulation)