Abdulqowiyy Abdulraheem

Abdulqowiyy AbdulraheemSep 18, 2026

One thing I’ve started paying more attention to when looking at startups: How founders talk about their market. I’ve seen pitches throw around huge numbers: “$10 billion market.” “$50 billion industry.” “$100 billion opportunity.” Sounds impressive. But my first question is usually: “How much of that can you actually reach?” That’s where TAM, SAM and SOM become useful. TAM — Total Addressable Market The entire opportunity if everyone who could potentially buy your product did. Think of it as the whole game. SAM — Serviceable Addressable Market Now bring reality into it. Which part of that market can your business actually serve? Maybe you’re operating in Nigeria. Maybe your product only works in certain industries. Maybe regulation, geography, language or logistics limits your reach. That’s your SAM. Then comes the one I find most interesting: SOM — Serviceable Obtainable Market. What can you realistically win? Not the entire continent. Not the entire industry. The part you can actually capture given your competitors, resources, distribution and execution. I think about it like football: TAM = the entire football industry. SAM = the league you can actually play in. SOM = the matches your current squad can realistically win. And that’s why simply saying: “This is a $50B market” doesn’t tell me much. Show me the journey from: Huge opportunity → reachable market → realistic capture. A large TAM tells me there’s a potentially valuable opportunity. A focused SAM tells me you understand where you can actually operate. A credible SOM tells me you’ve thought about how you’re going to compete. The size of the opportunity matters. But understanding your position inside that opportunity matters just as much. Because strategy isn’t just knowing how big the market is. It’s knowing where you can realistically win. How do you think about TAM, SAM and SOM when evaluating a business? #BusinessGrowth #BusinessAnalysis #Startups #Entrepreneurship #MarketResearch #ARAQGLOBALINNOVATION

Abdulqowiyy AbdulraheemSep 16, 2026

Okay… I finally did it. 😂 My first LinkedIn video. I've spent enough time posting thoughts, analysing businesses, writing captions and hiding comfortably behind the keyboard. So I figured… maybe it's time to actually show up on camera. 😅 And of course, my first video had to be about a $5 note nobody picked up. Funny enough, the story is actually a good reminder for me too. Sometimes we're waiting for an opportunity to feel official before we go after it. #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #CareerGrowth #PersonalDevelopment #LinkedIn #ARAQGLOBALINNOVATION

Abdulqowiyy AbdulraheemSep 15, 2026

That’s too expensive. I think businesses sometimes hear this and immediately start thinking: “Maybe we should lower the price.” But what if that's not actually the problem? Someone can pay ₦10,000 for something and feel like they got a great deal. Someone else can pay ₦5,000 for the same thing and still feel cheated. Same transaction. Different perception of value. That's what makes pricing interesting. People aren't always paying for the thing itself. They're paying for what the thing does for them. Time saved. Stress avoided. Better experience. Convenience. Trust. Results. That's why I think one of the worst reactions to “it's too expensive” is immediately giving a discount. Sometimes the customer doesn't need a lower price. They need to understand the value better. And sometimes, honestly, the business hasn't created enough value in the first place. So I'm learning to look at pricing differently. Don't just ask: “What can we charge?” Ask: “What problem are we solving, and how much is solving that problem actually worth to the customer?” Because lowering the price can make you cheaper. But increasing the value can make you worth it. Price gets attention. Value gets the decision. #BusinessAnalysis #BusinessGrowth #CustomerBehaviour #Entrepreneurship #PricingStrategy #ARAQGLOBALINNOVATION