Market Research · SaaS
Know exactly how big your market is—and where the open lane runs.
We build your TAM/SAM/SOM from the bottom up, map every competitor and feature, and pressure-test where demand actually lives. You get a defensible read on market size, segmentation, and positioning—not a slide of borrowed numbers.
The Outcome
What market research actually gives you
Not a slide deck of generic stats — a defensible read of your market and a decision you can act on.
A sizing model you can defend
Bottom-up TAM/SAM/SOM built from account counts, seat math, and price points—every input sourced and every assumption visible.
A clear map of the competitive field
Feature-by-feature and positioning matrices that show where rivals cluster and where the whitespace sits.
A sharper ICP and segment priority
Demand segmented by firmographic, use case, and willingness-to-pay so you know which segment to win first.
How we work
Here’s how we’d research it — sourced, not borrowed
We won’t hand you a report full of borrowed numbers. What follows is exactly how we’d research your market and what you’d get — every figure sourced, triangulated, and built bottom-up rather than pulled from a headline. Where the data is thin, we say so and present ranges with the derivation shown, so the work stands up to a board, a lender, or an investor.
Who it’s for: Founders, product leaders, and investors sizing a software category, planning a launch or expansion, or building the market section of a raise—who need numbers that survive a diligence call.
The Core Questions
Four research workstreams
Each engagement runs as focused workstreams built around the decisions you face. Here is the strategic question each one answers and how we’d go about answering it.
01
Bottom-up market sizing
The question: How large is the real, addressable opportunity—not the headline number a report sold you?
What we’d deliver: A TAM/SAM/SOM model built account-up: we count qualifying organizations from firmographic databases, apply seat/usage and pricing assumptions, and triangulate against top-down category figures. You get the model itself, every source cited, ranges where inputs are uncertain, and the sensitivity levers that move the answer.
02
Competitive & feature mapping
The question: Who else is competing for this budget, and where are they strong or exposed?
What we’d deliver: A structured landscape: direct, adjacent, and build-vs-buy alternatives, mapped on feature coverage, pricing, target segment, and positioning. We assemble it from product pages, pricing tables, review-site signal, and public funding data—then chart where the field clusters and where gaps remain.
03
ICP & demand segmentation
The question: Which customers should you build and sell for first?
What we’d deliver: We segment the addressable market by firmographics, use case, buying trigger, and willingness-to-pay, then size each segment and rank on fit and reachability. Where primary input helps, we run structured buyer interviews. Output is a prioritized ICP with the evidence behind the ranking.
04
Positioning & whitespace
The question: Where can you stake a claim the incumbents can’t easily copy?
What we’d deliver: Using the competitive map and segment work, we identify unoccupied or underserved positions—by feature, segment, price tier, or go-to-market motion—and stress-test each for defensibility. You get a whitespace brief with the trade-offs of each lane spelled out.
The Fuller Scope
The fuller scope
Beyond the four core workstreams, engagements often extend into the questions below. We scope only what the decision needs.
Category definition
When your product spans or creates a category, we define the boundaries that make sizing honest—and flag where the category is still forming.
Pricing & packaging context
We benchmark competitor price points, tiers, and monetization models to frame where your pricing can sit, without prescribing the number for you.
Buyer & user research
Structured interviews and survey design to test demand signals, jobs-to-be-done, and objection patterns with real buyers.
Adjacency & expansion mapping
Sizing and competitive read on the next markets—verticals, geographies, or product lines—so expansion bets rest on evidence.
Channel & partner landscape
Who the resellers, marketplaces, and integration partners are, and how competitors reach buyers through them.
Go/no-go framing
A structured decision brief that lays out the case for and against entry, with the thresholds that would change the answer.
Investor-ready market narrative
The market section of your deck or memo, built on the sizing and competitive work so it holds up under diligence.
Decisions This Research Informs
Decisions this research informs
Research is only worth it if it changes a decision. Here’s what ours is built to inform.
Is this market big enough to build a company on?
Bottom-up SOM against realistic capture assumptions, with the sensitivity band shown.
Which segment do we win first?
Segment-level sizing and fit ranking across firmographics and use case.
Can we differentiate, or is the field saturated?
Feature and positioning maps that expose clustering and open lanes.
What should our pricing sit near?
Competitive price-point and packaging benchmarks framing the viable range.
Is the next market worth expanding into?
Adjacency sizing and competitive read on candidate expansion markets.
Should we enter at all?
Go/no-go brief consolidating sizing, competition, and demand into a decision.
A bottom-up SaaS TAM is built by counting qualifying organizations in a defined segment (say, US firms of 50–500 employees in a target vertical), applying a modeled seat count and your price point, then triangulating that figure against published category estimates and flagging the gap. Where an input is uncertain—adoption rate, average seats—we show a range rather than a single number and identify which assumption most moves the result. Every figure ties back to a named source or a stated, defensible assumption; we do not invent CAGRs or market values.
The Engagement
Rigorous, sourced, and decision-ready
A scoped research engagement built to answer specific questions — not a generic market overview. We frame the questions, run the desk and primary research, size the opportunity bottom-up, and deliver a synthesis you can put in front of a board or an investor.
Every number is defensible. We show the sources, the method, and the range — so the read holds up to scrutiny instead of collapsing on the first hard question.
Every market is different. The scope is where we frame the questions worth answering.
How It Works
From question to decision-ready answer
-
Scope & questions
We define the decision at stake and the specific questions the research must answer — so nothing gets sized or studied that doesn’t move the call.
-
Desk & primary research
Triangulated secondary sources plus primary inputs where they matter — competitor teardowns, customer signals, channel and pricing reads.
-
Bottom-up sizing & analysis
A TAM/SAM/SOM built from documented inputs, a competitive map, and the whitespace — with every figure traceable to a source.
-
Synthesis & recommendation
The findings resolved into a clear position and a go/no-go, written to stand up to a board, a lender, or an investor.
-
Decision support
We stay on to pressure-test the call, brief stakeholders, and feed the research into the launch, raise, or entry plan it informs.
FAQ
SaaS & Technology — market-research questions
Do you use numbers from off-the-shelf market reports?
We reference them for triangulation, but we never present a report’s headline number as your answer. Our sizing is built bottom-up from countable inputs, then checked against top-down sources with any gap explained.
What’s the difference between TAM, SAM, and SOM as you use them?
TAM is the total demand if everyone who could buy did; SAM narrows to the segment you can actually serve; SOM is the realistic share you could capture given your motion and resources. We build all three and show the assumptions bridging each level.
How do you build a bottom-up model?
We start from unit counts—organizations, seats, or transactions—apply price and adoption assumptions, and sum upward. Because every input is explicit, you can change an assumption and watch the number move.
Can you promise a specific market-size number before starting?
No. The number is the output of the research, not an input. Anyone who quotes it up front is guessing.
How long does an engagement take?
A focused sizing and competitive read typically runs a few weeks; broader scope with primary buyer research runs longer. We scope to the decision and its timeline.
Do you do primary customer interviews?
When the decision needs demand signal we can’t get from desk research, yes—we design and run structured buyer interviews or surveys and fold the findings into the segmentation.
Will this be diligence-ready for a raise?
That’s a common use. Because the model is sourced and the assumptions are visible, it holds up when an investor pressure-tests it.
Do you recommend our pricing or positioning?
We give you the competitive and demand evidence and lay out the trade-offs of each option. The final pricing and positioning call stays yours—informed, not outsourced.
The Full Practice