Customers & Research

How do I research a market in India where reliable data and analyst reports basically don't exist?

A starting point

For most Indian early-stage markets the top-down report you want either doesn't exist or is a recycled global number with a made-up India multiplier, so don't build your case on it. Go bottom-up instead: count real buyers you can name, check what similar tools charge, and triangulate from distributor conversations, trade WhatsApp groups, and on-the-ground visits. Government and industry-body data (MSME registries, GST-linked counts) is patchy but often more honest than a glossy paid report.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 3 link-checked Read Use

Read

✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it Most market sizing advice online is generic TAM SAM SOM filler. This one is written by an investor, backed by a survey of 30 VCs, and it is honest about the thing that matters: a big number pulled from an industry report proves nothing. It walks you through building the number bottom up (customers times what they pay you per year), which forces you to confront whether real people will actually pay, and that is the honest test of whether an idea can grow past a niche.

Market Sizing Guide

From Pear VC by Ian Taylor ~15 min read

  • Size the market bottom up (count of real customers times annual revenue per customer), not by claiming a percent of some giant top down figure.
  • TAM, SAM, and SOM are used loosely across the industry, so state your assumptions plainly instead of hiding behind the acronyms.
  • Project the market out five or more years and include how you would actually reach and acquire customers, since a market you cannot serve is not your market.
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✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked India Free Intermediate

Why we picked it Sajith Pai is an India VC, and he tells on himself here: he passed on WhiteHat Jr. by trusting a headline India TAM number, then learned it was the wrong way to think. The piece grounds you in real reachable demand (the actual India1 consuming class and a beachhead you can serve) rather than a paper market pulled from a slide. Read it as a starting point for why a smaller, real market usually beats a big, imaginary one.

TAM: Notes & Thoughts

From sajithpai.com by Sajith Pai

  • Headline India TAM figures are a blunt tool that measure existing demand, not the market you can actually reach or expand into.
  • Size the problem and a concrete beachhead you can win first, since a targetable immediate market funds the next round even when TAM looks small.
  • Most Indian startups are really addressing India1, the consuming class, so honest sizing starts from who will actually pay, not the full population.
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Use

🛠️ Tool
✓ Link checked India Freemium Beginner

Why we picked it When analyst reports do not exist, MCA filings are one of the few honest data points you can actually get in India, and Tofler makes them searchable across 200,000+ companies without wrestling the government portal. You can pull a competitor's balance sheet, revenue, directors, and charges to reality-check a market from real numbers instead of guesses. Basic company data is free to look up, with fuller financial reports behind a paid plan.

Tofler: Indian Company Financials and Filings

From Tofler by TWS Systems Private Limited

  • Search Indian private and public companies for MCA-filed financials: profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow across multiple years.
  • Use competitor filings to triangulate real market demand when no analyst report exists.
  • Freemium: basic lookups are free, detailed Company 360 reports are paid, or pull raw filings yourself from mca.gov.in.
Open tofler.in →

People also ask

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