Top-Down Approach

Start with a large, credible market number from a third-party report and work down to your segment. This approach is fast, uses authoritative sources, and is intuitive for investors — but it can mask weak assumptions about what fraction of the market you can actually reach.

Example — B2B SaaS HR tool for Indian SMBs:

• NASSCOM reports India's HRtech market at ₹8,500 Cr in 2024, growing at 22% CAGR
• Your product targets companies with 50–500 employees → MCA21 shows ~180,000 such companies registered in India
• Filter to companies with structured HR departments (estimated 40% based on CRISIL MSME survey) → 72,000 potential accounts
• Average ACV you can charge: ₹1.2L per year → SAM = 72,000 × ₹1.2L = ₹864 Cr

Bottom-Up Approach

Build the market size from the ground up using your own unit economics and a count of addressable customers. This is harder to fake, more credible to sophisticated investors, and directly ties market sizing to your GTM model.

Same example — Bottom-Up:

• Your current ACV: ₹1.2L. Based on pricing research, this is acceptable to companies with 50–500 headcount in Tier 1 and metro Tier 2 cities.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator query: "HR Manager OR CHRO, company size 50–500, India" → 68,000 matching companies
• Apply 35% filter for companies already using a competing solution they are unlikely to switch from → 44,200 genuinely addressable accounts
• At a 15% annual win rate with your current GTM capacity (2 AEs at ₹1.5 Cr quota each) → realistic SOM Year 1: ₹3 Cr ARR
• SAM = 44,200 × ₹1.2L = ₹530 Cr

Customer Interviews — The Highest-Signal Research Method

A 45-minute structured customer interview with a genuine potential buyer generates more actionable insight than 1,000 survey responses. The goal is not to validate your hypothesis — it is to discover what you do not know you do not know.

• Minimum viable interview count: 30–50 interviews before concluding you understand a problem space. The 30th interview should not surprise you — if it does, you need more.
• Who to interview: Economic buyer (who signs the contract), end user (who uses the product daily), and influencer (who recommends it) — these are often three different people in India's B2B market
• Opening question: "Walk me through the last time you dealt with [problem]. What happened?" — open-ended, past-tense, no leading
• Willingness-to-pay probe: "If a solution existed that eliminated this problem entirely, what would you budget for it annually?" — ask this after building rapport, not at the start
• India-specific tip: In Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, in-person interviews convert 3x more useful information than video calls — invest in field trips to Surat, Ludhiana, Coimbatore, or Nashik if your customer is an Indian SMB owner

Surveys — Scale Your Signal

Surveys work for quantitative validation of qualitative hypotheses discovered in interviews. Use them to measure, not discover.

• Corpfy Customer Discovery: Best for B2C — high completion rates due to conversational UX; free tier supports 100 responses/month
• Google Forms: Best for India SMB surveys — familiar interface, zero friction, works well on Android; ideal for WhatsApp-distributed surveys
• Corpfy NPS & Sentiment: Better analytical capabilities for quantitative research; useful for Likert scale and matrix questions
• Sample size rule of thumb: 200+ responses for consumer surveys (India has massive variance by state/city); 50+ for B2B surveys where your TAM is smaller
• Distribution in India: WhatsApp groups > Email for SMB owners; LinkedIn > Email for enterprise decision-makers; Google Forms + WhatsApp link is the fastest path to 100+ responses from Indian SMBs

India-Specific Field Research Tips

• Attend state-level trade shows: CII Regional Expos, FICCI sectoral conferences, India International Trade Fair (Pragati Maidan) — rich source of SMB decision-makers you cannot reach online
• Visit SIDBI-supported MSME clusters (Tirupur knitwear, Moradabad brassware, Jaipur gems) for B2B products targeting manufacturers
• Partner with local CA firms and MSME associations — they can introduce you to 20–30 SMB owners in a single day
• Use DPIIT's Startup India Portal to find other startups in your space and compare notes — not competitors, but adjacent players who share the same customer

Porter's Five Forces — Applied to Indian Markets

Michael Porter's five forces remain the most structured way to assess industry attractiveness. For Indian startups, apply each force with India-specific context:

• Threat of New Entrants: India's low capital cost environment means barriers to entry are often low. Assess regulatory barriers (SEBI for fintech, IRDAI for insurtech, DPDP Act for data businesses), technology switching costs, and brand moat.
• Bargaining Power of Buyers: Indian SMBs are extremely price-sensitive — understand their BATNA (best alternative to negotiated agreement). Enterprise buyers have long procurement cycles but lower churn once locked in.
• Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure) dominates — assess your AWS/GCP dependency. Talent is a key supplier in tech startups; India's deep engineering talent pool reduces this risk.
• Threat of Substitutes: In India, the most dangerous substitute is often the "Excel and WhatsApp" workflow — the incumbent solution your target customer is using before they've adopted any formal software.
• Competitive Rivalry: Map funded competitors by stage — a ₹5 Cr pre-seed startup is not the same threat as a ₹200 Cr Series B player. Use Tracxn to get this data.

PESTLE Analysis — India Context

• Political: DPIIT policy changes, GST rate revisions, FDI policy for your sector, Make in India requirements for hardware startups
• Economic: India's ₹300 Lakh Cr GDP, 6.5%+ CAGR, rising middle class, Tier 2/3 city consumption boom, UPI-driven digital economy
• Social: 65% population under 35, smartphone penetration at 750M+, regional language internet users growing faster than English
• Technological: India Stack (Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC, Account Aggregator) as infrastructure; 5G rollout enabling new use cases
• Legal: DPDP Act 2023 (data privacy), IT Act, Companies Act 2013, sector-specific regulations (RBI for fintech, SEBI for wealthtech, IRDAI for insurtech)
• Environmental: Green energy mandates, ESG reporting requirements for listed companies (relevant if selling to large enterprises)

Perceptual Mapping — Visualising Your Positioning

A 2x2 perceptual map plots competitors on two axes most relevant to your buyers' decision-making — typically Price (low to high) and a key attribute (e.g., ease of use, feature depth, support quality). Plot every named competitor and leave white space where you intend to position. This is the most powerful single visual in a competitive slide because it makes your differentiation instantly obvious without words.

Demographic Segmentation (B2C)

Age, income bracket, education, location (metro vs Tier 2 vs rural), gender, occupation. India has 8 defined consumer income segments from NCAER — from the mass market (under ₹2L/year household income) to the affluent (₹10L+ per year). Know exactly which segment you serve, because willingness-to-pay, payment method preference, and brand trust signals differ dramatically across segments.

Firmographic Segmentation (B2B)

Industry vertical (BFSI, manufacturing, retail, IT services), company size by headcount (1–10, 11–50, 51–200, 200–1000, 1000+), annual revenue, city/state, ownership type (family-owned, PE-backed, listed). MCA21 is your primary source for firmographic data — it covers all 2.1 million+ active registered companies in India.

Psychographic Segmentation

Values, aspirations, lifestyle, and attitudes — particularly important for D2C and consumer brands in India. The aspirational middle-class Indian consumer who purchases premium products as status signals is a fundamentally different segment from the value-conscious buyer who needs the lowest TCO. India's massive regional cultural diversity means psychographics vary enormously by state — Gujarati entrepreneurs think differently from Tamil Nadu factory owners, and your messaging and product must reflect this.

Behavioural Segmentation

Purchase frequency, usage intensity, channel preference (WhatsApp, offline, e-commerce), brand loyalty, occasion-based buying. For SaaS, behavioural segmentation means feature usage patterns — power users who use 80% of features vs. occasional users who use 20%. India's mobile-first behaviour means your product analytics must be optimised for Android mobile usage patterns, not desktop.

What Investors Actually Look For

• Bottom-up SOM with a clear path: A ₹500 Cr SAM means nothing if you cannot explain how you reach ₹10 Cr ARR in year 2. Show the unit economics path — customers × ACV = ARR — with real assumptions.
• Proof you have spoken to the market: Quote specific customer interviews. "In 40 interviews with HR managers at Indian manufacturing companies, 73% cited X as their top pain point" is infinitely stronger than "market research shows…"
• India-specific data, not global proxies: Sophisticated Indian VCs are deeply uncomfortable when founders cite Gartner's global cloud market or a US McKinsey report as proof of Indian market size. Use IBEF, NASSCOM, Redseer, and MCA21 — they signal that you understand the Indian market specifically.
• Honest competitive landscape: Do not pretend you have no competition — every investor knows there is always competition (the Excel spreadsheet is your competition). Show that you understand the competitive dynamics and explain your specific advantage.
• CAGR with tailwinds: Identify the structural trend making this market grow — UPI adoption, GST digitisation, India's demographic dividend, formalisation of the informal economy. Tie your market growth to a macro tailwind that a VC will recognise.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Professional market research tools — Statista, Tracxn, CB Insights — produce reports. They don't help founders turn research into a coherent market narrative or connect insights directly to their pitch deck. Corpfy's Market Research module is the connective tissue between raw data and the investor-facing story.

Industry tools and what Corpfy does differently