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This section is all about understanding the process of customer discovery and using it to identify your market segments. At the end, you'll have an understanding of different markets (like TAM, SAM, SOM, and PTM, STM, and TTM) and how to segment & size these markets, as well as tools to perform a competitive analysis and IP landscape for your venture.
There's a well-known quote that says "You can't go to market without market research." Indeed, market research will make or break a startup. If you do it well, you drastically increase your chances of success. If you decide to skip it, the only way you will succeed is by sheer luck alone (and even then, it's unlikely). Market research is obviously important, but what is it?
<aside> 💡 In essence, market research is the process of finding information and soliciting feedback in order to validate core business assumptions.
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We talked in Early Venture Basics about testing your assumptions, and market research is one of the primary ways to do that. But what does market research look like in practice?
We'll dive into each of these types, but before we do, it's important to understand what we mean when we say "market."
The term Market is thrown around a ton when it comes to venture building, finance, and beyond. There are many different definitions, but for venture-building purposes, the simplest way to understand a market is as the group of people you are selling to.
More specifically, a market is a group of consumers or organizations that's...