Market
Show the size of the opportunity and the wedge you can realistically win first.
What & why
A single giant number tends to trigger disbelief because it feels unearned and easy to inflate. Leading with one or two figures keeps cognitive load low, and bottom-up reasoning lets the listener follow each step and arrive at the total themselves, which feels far more trustworthy than a headline they have to accept blind. Naming the specific slice you can win first counters the unspoken objection (how would you ever capture this?) before it forms. Connecting size to your go-to-market plan turns an abstract opportunity into a believable path.
Before & after
“The global software market is $600 billion, so even capturing 1% would make us a $6 billion company.”
“There are 28,000 mid-market SaaS companies in the US spending an average of $180K/year on developer tooling. That's a $5B SAM. We're targeting the 4,000 that use our CI/CD stack, a $720M SOM we can reach with our current sales motion.”
When you’ll use it
Presenting the market opportunity slide in an investor pitch deck
Answering 'How big can this get?' from a seed investor
Writing the market section of an accelerator application
Justifying your valuation based on addressable market
Explaining market expansion potential in a Series A pitch
Pro tip
Use the smallest number that still proves this can be big. In speech, believable scale beats bloated scale.
Questions & answers
What's the difference between TAM, SAM, and SOM?
Should I use top-down or bottom-up market sizing?
Learn more
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