The fastest way to show a VC that you don't understand your market...

🧐 Confusing your product category for your market when presenting TAM.

Your product category is NOT your market.

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Here is an example to help explain...

🤖 Example Scenario

Let's say your product is an AI Platform - So your product enables people to create AI/ML models.

Your product category is: AI DEVELOPER TOOL

Your market is: PEOPLE BUYING AI TOOLS TO SOLVE A PROBLEM

So when you tell an investor that your TAM is the $50B+ AI Industry...

You immediately lose credibility.

Instead, think of markets as people trying to solve a specific problem.

Because I can assure you, no one is buying AI tools just to buy AI tools.

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So remember, your product category is NOT your market.

If you show investors that you get the difference, this tells them that you may actually be able to build a real go-to-market plan to get customers.

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🧑‍🚀 Have you seen others make this mistake?

Drop a line in the comments with other examples you have seen.