TAM (Total Addressable Market)
The total possible revenue if you captured 100% of the market for your product.
TAM is a theoretical ceiling: if every possible buyer bought your product at your price, how much revenue would that be? It matters for VCs (who need to see billion-dollar TAMs to invest) and for indie founders (who need TAM big enough to hit their MRR goal but not so big that giants compete). For a $10K MRR goal, you need roughly 100 customers at $100/mo — the TAM only needs to be a few hundred thousand plausible buyers. TAM math often gets abused by founders inflating markets; SAM (serviceable available market) and SOM (serviceable obtainable market) are more useful downstream numbers.
Related terms
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
The predictable monthly revenue from active subscriptions. The indie-founder scoreboard metric.
Wedge
The narrow initial use-case that opens the door to a broader product later.
PLG (Product-Led Growth)
A go-to-market motion where the product itself drives acquisition, activation, and expansion.