In the world of SaaS scaling, we've all witnessed the same two tired approaches to growth: the feature-reactive "our competitors added AI, so we need AI too" knee-jerk response, or the expensive, high-risk "acquire a startup so our sales team has another thing to sell" strategy. But what about the fertile middle ground between these extremes?
There’s a practical approach to identifying strategic opportunities that feels almost too simple—until you see the results.
Start With What You Have
The first question isn’t “what can you buy?” but “what do you already own?” Examine your existing assets—your platform, product suite, or even individual features—and identify novel ways to package them for new customer segments, industries, or regions.
Sometimes, the most brilliant moves aren’t about building something new, but reimagining what you already have. Think of Lululemon partnering with Mirror instead of acquiring another clothing retailer. It’s the classic zig when everyone else zags—a product-focused strategic decision that opened new possibilities.
Beyond Total Addressable Market
Financial analysts love TAM (Total Addressable Market). Saying things like: “The adult learning market is 40 million people—capture just 1% and you’re set!” But this surface-level analysis often leads to wasted resources.
The smarter approach is to dig deeper: How much of that adult learning market is actually reachable? If your product serves Fortune 500 employees in transition, don’t look at all 40 million adult learners—calculate the turnover rate at Fortune 500 companies. If your solution addresses technology skills, for example, apply that percentage to your actual obtainable market.
This pragmatic lens helps identify opportunities you can realistically capture, not just impressive-looking numbers for pitch decks.
Where Product Meets Strategy
What makes this approach different is the marriage of product understanding with strategic thinking. When you live in product, you develop methods to create confidence in taking innovation to market—something that’s impossible to see when you’re only looking at spreadsheets.
Start from the bottom up: “What could we add, subtract, or change about the product to access this new market?” Then partner with financial teams to determine if the investment makes sense with a deeper focus than TAM.
The magic happens when product-led opportunity identification meets rigorous financial validation. Both perspectives are essential, but starting with what you can build rather than just what you can buy often reveals the most efficient path to sustainable growth.
Is your growth strategy built on pragmatic product possibilities, or are you chasing market size mirages? Did you buy that start-up because you’ve done the work to identify that they already have what you would have had to spend resources to build? Sometimes the best opportunities are hiding in plain sight.
