SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market)

The portion of TAM you could actually serve given your product, geography and business model.

Example

English-speaking logistics firms of 20–200 people.

Important

SAM is where the honesty starts. It forces you to admit what your product cannot do and where you cannot sell.

Related terms

  • TAM (Total Addressable Market) — The total annual revenue available if you had 100% of a market with no competition.
  • SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) — What you can realistically win in the next few years with your actual resources.
  • Market sizing — Estimating market size, ideally bottom-up from real units and prices rather than top-down from an industry report.

Lessons that explain it

  • Market size — TAM, SAM and SOM — How to size a market bottom-up so the number means something, instead of the '1% of a $50B market' slide everyone has seen. (12 min)

All 176 terms in the Founder glossary