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Intermediate
Market Size: What is TAM, SAM, & SOM?
From carta.com by Carta ~12 min read
Why we picked it
A clear, no-nonsense primer on the three market-size numbers every founder gets asked about, with the bottom-up method that actually holds up in front of investors. Pick this over the SEO listicles because it comes from a platform that lives inside real cap tables and fundraises.
- TAM is the whole category, SAM is what you can realistically serve, SOM is what you can win near-term.
- Build the numbers bottom-up (customers times price), not top-down percentages of a giant number.
- A defensible SOM matters more to investors than an impressive TAM slide.