Katie Nowak's Linkedin Analytics

“Where do I start with my market size?!?!” 🤯 I had the pleasure of answering that question with Angel Squad’s Emerging Founder School this morning. In short - Market Sizing = figuring out how big your opportunity is! But if you want a longer answer - Here's a glimpse of what we covered in our workshop: ✨ Know your customers, first. You can’t determine target markets without first understanding... …what you’re selling! …who you’re selling to! What is the problem you are solving? Who needs this problem solved? ✨ Segment your market. Break your customers down into groups. Age, region, interests are example filters. Focus on those that are best suited to win, early. ✨ Gut-check your market size with tops-down analysis. Here's how: TAM = the total possible market for your product, aka everyone who could buy it SAM = the part of the TAM you could actually reach, based on your offering and where/how you sell SOM = the share of the SAM you could realistically win in the next 5 years Use market research and your best, rooted-in-research estimates. Based on that and YOUR goals, is your market large enough / too small? (PS - the 'your goals' piece is key. They could be: scaling to IPO; selling the business at $10M ARR; running a lifestyle business; etc. Founders come in many different variations!) ✨ Build a plan with bottoms-up market sizing. Happy with your TAM, SAM, SOM? Now it’s time to make it believable. 😎 How many customers can you actually reach in your SOM? How will you reach them - in what channels? Why are you best positioned to capture them? What "distribution moat" do you have? PS - bottoms-up planning is often the gateway to a financial model ;) ✨ Check your assumptions. My fave fave fave step (yes three fave's were necessary) How feasible is your market size? What assumptions are you making? ...are they realistic? And how might they change over the course of your biz? - So grateful to my dear friend Aaisha for allowing me to play a ~ small ~ role in the incredible Emerging Founder School she is creating with Angel Squad. Cannot wait to cheer on this awesome founder cohort as they achieve their dreams. They're ones to watch, for sure!! - How are you thinking about your market size today? What challenges are you facing? Drop ‘em below and I’ll come share thoughts! - I'm Katie Nowak, an innovation leader, new venture designer and investor sharing examples & lessons weekly.

We are globe-trotting this week! 💫 If you are in Korea or Taiwan, And you’re… ✨ interested in the venture secondary market; ✨ curious about investing in companies like Canva, Databricks, Anthropic, Anduril, etc.; and/or ✨ actively investing in venture funds We’d love to meet you! Drop a comment below, and we will reach out to you. Even despite the current markets, Altra Venture Partners has been on a tear - and this is just the beginning. 😎 Jamie Melzer and I look forward to seeing you and sharing more! - I'm Katie Nowak, an innovation leader, new venture designer and investor sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

The most successful companies today don’t just build businesses… …they build ecosystems. 🤯 Think Amazon, Apple, or Tencent. These companies don’t just sell products; they create interconnected systems where each piece amplifies the value of the others. Why does this matter? Ecosystem models unlock exponential growth by: ✨ Creating network effects. Each new user or partner adds value to the entire system. For example, Apple’s App Store makes the iPhone more valuable, which attracts more developers, and so on. ✨ Capturing multiple revenue streams. Ecosystems let you monetize in ways traditional models can’t. Amazon earns from Prime memberships, third-party sellers, AWS, and more. ✨ Building customer stickiness. Once customers are in your ecosystem, leaving becomes costly. Think about how hard it is to leave Apple if you own an iPhone, MacBook, and Apple Watch. We like it when these "switching costs" are high! - The key insight? Don’t just ask what product you’re building... ask what ecosystem you’re creating in the long term. Here are some questions to get started - What is your core business today? What adjacent opportunities could amplify your core business? Which adjacent opportunity comes first? Why? How do future adjacent opportunities build upon the first? Share your answers to these questions below! 👇 - I'm Katie Nowak, an innovation leader, new venture designer and investor sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

Here are 6 signs of a WINNING business strategy, whether you’re a founder or an enterprise 🤯 ✨ The customers (that matter) adore you. You listen to them, and anticipate their needs. Your non-customers, on the other hand, may not understand why anybody would ever buy from you. That’s a good thing! That means you’ve been choiceful! ✨ A business model that’s different. Your competitors and their activities look different from yours. That means you’re attempting to deliver value in a distinctive way. ✨ Successful, profitable competitors. Your competitors are making a good profit doing business-as-usual. That means, they don’t have to attack the heart of your market to survive. You’ll have some time to grow… …and maybe even turn them into partners! ✨ Competitors who attack each other (not you). This is a build on the prior point. If you are the hardest target in the industry to attack, Or you’re actually a “partner” to all and a “competitor” to none, Then you’re strategically positioned to avoid defensive battles. (Which can get pricey $$$) ✨ Defendable profit margins. Resources do a lot of the talking in business! If you are winning on profit margins, you have the best capacity to offensively chase new opportunities or defensively protect your turf, if need be. ✨ Customers look to you for ‘new’ things. If your target market is looking to you first for innovations, new products, and service enhancements to make their lives better… …you’re really on fire! Makes me think of the greats like Apple. This is a great sign that you are uniquely positioned to create ongoing value for customers. - Which of these points resonates most with you? Where could you use the most help in your business today? Leave a comment below and let’s dive in. 👇 PS - if you want to read even more on this topic… check out “Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works.” It is one of the my faves :) - I'm Katie Nowak, an innovation leader, new venture designer and investor sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

“How should my biz evolve over time?!” 🤯 Dreaming of your North Star without an idea of what is possible is HARD! To help you envision the next 5 years of your business, here are some common strategic shifts - ✨ Human-led to digital-first. Here’s what this usually looks like - A tech-savvy player emerges in a traditional space. This player may start with a business model just like its competitors… …but starts to create proprietary tools and software that empower their human workforce to perform more tasks, better. Eventually, the new player may become entirely digital first, with human oversight. Existing players are now in a pickle - especially if they do not have the ability to innovate as quickly (e.g. legacy technology, culture change, investment hurdle). When done well, this is one of our fave models. ✨ Product to Platform. Many companies start by selling a single product (wedge play!); then expand into a suite of related offerings; and ultimately create a platform that allows third parties to create value. Here’s an example - Apple started as a computer manufacturer. Apple expanded into consumer electronics (iPhones/iPads) Today, Apple operates a platform ecosystem (App Store, iCloud, ApplePay) that supports third party developers and services. ✨ Mass Market to Mass Customization. Typically, businesses start with a standardized offering that appeals broadly to their target audience. As they saturate that audience, they start to identify new ones. ...or, they start to identify sub-segments that could be better served by a nuanced offering. By adding a level of ‘customization’ to their existing offering, companies can unlock new, or better serve existing, market segments. As an example - Nike’s online platforms allow you to design and order customer shoes online (mine involved lots of colorful speckles obviously). White-labeled software offerings, tailored to a specific business. ✨ One Sector to Many Sectors. In this case, businesses keep the core capabilities and/or user base the same. They often expand to control more of the user journey to/from their product. For example - Red Bull started as an energy drink company, but became a major media brand to deepen customer engagement. Uber launched as ride-hailing, but moved into food delivery and freight. - Whew, that is a lot of options for how you can evolve your biz!! (And it’s not even an exhaustive list…) Which of these models do you see in your industry? Which of these models is your biz following - or dreaming about? Drop a comment and let’s discuss where you see the biggest opportunity. - I'm Katie Nowak, an innovation leader, new venture designer and investor sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.