Podcast · ~35 min

SaaStr Podcast #227: Alexandr Wang, Founder & CEO @ Scale, on Why TAM In The Traditional Sense Barely Matters

SaaStr, with Alexandr Wang · SaaStr Free Advanced

Wang argues that the TAM slide investors ask for is often meaningless because Uber and Airbnb both started with tiny quoted market sizes that grew as the product created new demand. This is the useful counterweight to the sizing math in our short answer: your job is not just to measure today's market but to judge whether winning your niche expands it. Listen if you are worried your niche looks too small only because the category has not been sized correctly yet.

  • Early TAM estimates for now-huge companies were often tiny and wrong
  • What matters more than current market size is your ability to dominate and expand it
  • A market growing quickly can outrun a static, larger, and slower one
Open on saastr.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. What's the difference between defining a niche and just being too small to matter?

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