On this page
- The reality
- What the markers mark
- Build the market model from the bottom up
- Show the competitors, including "do nothing"
- Write the route to market stage by stage
- Price it and prove the business model
- Calibrate projections against published levels
- Weak and strong, hypothetical
- Pitfalls
- Checklist
- Questions
- How do I calculate TAM, SAM and SOM for a UK business?
- What percentage of the market is a credible SOM?
- Where can I find free UK market size data?
- What does Innovate UK want in the market awareness answer?
- How do I write the route to market in a grant application?
- Should a university spin-out license the IP or spin out, and how much equity does the university take?
- Sources
This guide gets you a market model an assessor can recompute, a route to market that names who makes, sells, buys and pays at each stage, and business-model figures that match the rest of the bid. Reuse it for Innovate UK, the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, investors and tenders.
- Innovate UK's top band wants market size "fully quantified and evidenced" and a route to market "identified and evidenced". A market sized only in general terms scores 5–6.1
- Count customers from free UK data, multiply by an evidenced price, and let sales capacity set what you can win. Never a picked percentage.
- "If you cannot explain how your product will be made, who will retail it, or your sales/service model, you will be marked down."2
- Competitors include "do nothing". Claiming none contradicts the question.
- Bookings are not revenue, gross margin includes delivery, LTV (lifetime value) is profit, and every figure matches in every answer.
The reality
- 5–6 out of 10 Innovate UK's band when "the addressable market is poorly quantified"1
- 258,520 UK businesses with 10 to 249 employees at the start of 20254
- 100x how far startups that had not raised money overestimated their market (Startup Genome, 3,200+ startups, 2011–12)13
- 43% of 385 VC-backed shutdowns since 2023 named poor product-market fit (CB Insights, March 2026)12
- 400 words for each market and route-to-market answer in a live Innovate UK round (competition 2582, closes 18 November 2026)14
Four hundred words, no links
Assessors "are instructed not to click links".16 Put headline figures, with publisher and year, in the answer; keep the model in a spreadsheet. Validation takes "2-3 times longer" than founders expect;13 ICURe Explore funds research teams for 12 full-time weeks, up to £35,000.20
What the markers mark
| Innovate UK question | 9–10 band | 7–8 band | Lower bands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market awareness | "The target market size, drivers and dynamics are fully quantified and evidenced. Any barriers to entry are identified and addressed. Where the market is new or unexplored, possible routes are identified based on precedents." | "quantified with some evidence" | 5–6: "The general market size and dynamics are understood but the addressable market is poorly quantified." |
| Outcomes and route to market | "Target customers are identified along with the value proposition to them. The routes to market and how profit, productivity and growth will increase is identified and evidenced." | "outlined with some evidence" | 5–6: "Target customer types are described but the value proposition to them is less clear." |
| Need or challenge (competitors) | "a clear understanding of any similar innovation identified and its current limitations" | 3–4: references to similar innovations "are not offered or are not relevant" |
Bands from the Growth Catalyst Investor Partnerships Round 2 guidance; wording varies, so download your competition's.1 The market question also wants segmentation, "predicted growth rates within clear timeframes", value chains, "the current UK position" and size "backed up by references where available".115
"The best responses use current market data references (try to avoid wildly optimistic projections!) and describe the wider picture before focusing on the market share expected for your solution." Innovate UK Business Connect, Good Application Guide, 2024.2
The EIC Accelerator's short proposal asks "What and how big is the total market addressed? What is the realistic expectation of the share of the total market?" The full proposal (Work Programme 2026) scores Impact on "Market Opportunity; Business and revenue model and growth strategy; Broader impact" and asks "Are the financial projections realistic?" UK firms can receive grant only.3 See KTP and the EIC.
Michael Seibel, Y Combinator: "I prefer the bottom up method because it helps you avoid a common top down pitfall".5 VentureBeat: "The quickest way to lose credibility is to exaggerate a market."6 Launchrock: investors discount "the global wellness market is $4 trillion and we'll get 1 percent".7
Build the market model from the bottom up
Step 1: define a customer you can count
Write one line: "[role] at [type of organisation], [size band], [SIC codes], [geography], who today handle this by [workaround] costing [£ or hours a year]." SIC is the Standard Industrial Classification used in the counts below. Use the same customer in the model and the pitch; a mismatch is "usually cause for pausing".6
| Source | Counts | Cut by | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Population Estimates 2025 (Department for Business and Trade, DBT)4 | 5,690,265 private sector businesses, start of 2025 | size band, sector, region | free |
| ONS, UK business: activity, size and location, 202627 | enterprises and local units, IDBR snapshot 13 March 2026 | legal status, industry, region, employment and turnover band | free |
| Nomis, UK Business Counts28 | enterprises and local units (sites) | 5-digit SIC, size band, down to MSOA | free |
| Companies House, basic company data29 | every live company, named, with SIC codes | monthly CSV snapshot | free, unsupported |
| Business & IP Centre (BIPC) databases: IBISWorld, Mintel, Euromonitor Passport, Factiva9 | market size, forecasts, key players | industry | free with a Reader Pass, some on site only, at "over 70 libraries across the UK" |
| Espacenet, Google Patents, The Lens30 | 150m+ and 120m+ patent documents; 200m+ scholarly records | applicant, classification | free |
The UK had 5,690,265 private sector businesses at the start of 2025; the worked example below counts only the 258,520 with 10 to 249 employees. Decide whether your customer includes the 4.27m with none.4
BPE's regional tables and Nomis counts by local authority or MSOA give you a North West SAM in an afternoon; for venues, shops and clinics, count local units (sites), not enterprises.428 Area support: funding/greater-manchester and the other area pages.
Step 2: TAM, SAM and SOM, with the arithmetic showing
| Layer | Means | Built from | Reached through |
|---|---|---|---|
| TAM, total addressable market | everyone who could buy at your price | count × price | adjacent sectors or countries, one at a time ("Lily pads are okay"6) |
| SAM, serviceable addressable market | the segments your product, channel and compliance can serve now | the SIC and size bands you can serve × price | the next segments, a partner, a second channel |
| SOM, serviceable obtainable market | what your sales engine can win by year 3 | reps × deals a year × years, less churn | the named channel and the people in the P&L (profit and loss forecast) |
Compliance SaaS for UK firms with 10 to 249 employees
Software as a service (SaaS) at £3,000 a year (price invented); counts from BPE 2025.4
TAM: 220,085 small + 38,435 medium = 258,520 firms × £3,000 ≈ £776m. SAM: the three SIC sectors the product serves, from the BPE sector-by-size tables, say 30,000 firms × £3,000 = £90m. SOM, year 3: 2 reps × 60 deals a year × 3 years = 360 customers × £3,000 ≈ £1.1m ARR (annual recurring revenue), 1.2% of SAM (360 ÷ 30,000).
The 1.2% is an output, not an input. The two reps are salaries in the P&L that the grant will not pay: Innovate UK funds market assessment only where essential to the scope, and "Any direct sales activity costs are ineligible."18
The three layers (BPE 2025 counts; price and SAM count illustrative):4
The calculator also applies churn, 10% a year by default: 120 new customers a year, less 10% of those already held, leaves about 325 by year 3 and a SOM of about £976,000. (Its default 12% serviceable share gives about 31,000 firms, not 30,000.) If SOM reaches 100% of SAM, the SAM is too small or the sales assumptions too big.
Launchrock's published bottom-up model
About 40,000 US mid-market SaaS companies (50 to 500 staff) × $50,000 average annual contract value = $2bn US TAM, plus $3bn global; SAM $800m, reachable in five years given distribution; SOM $80m at scale.7 Inputs visible, SAM tied to distribution, SOM 10% of SAM and 4% of US TAM. A teaching model, not a funded deck.
A small honest market
2,400 UK independent venues and promoters (illustrative; use a sourced count such as Music Venue Trust data) × £1,200 a year ≈ £2.9m TAM. North West SAM 300 venues ≈ £360,000. SOM: one founder selling part-time closes 25 a year for three years, 75 venues ≈ £90,000 ARR, 25% of SAM. A revenue- or grant-funded business, not a venture one. Sam Altman: "the best answer is going after a large part of a small market".26 See Investors.
Step 3: reconcile the model with the rest of the bid
| Model figure | Must match |
|---|---|
| SOM customers by year | the revenue line in the finance answer |
| Reps or channel partners | headcount, salaries and the hiring plan |
| Price | the pricing evidence and the value proposition in £ |
| Sales cycle | revenue timing and cash flow |
| Churn | retention evidence from pilots |
| SAM segments | the customers named in the route to market and any letters or pilots |
MARKET MODEL (one page; the spreadsheet behind it is shareable)
Customer: [role] at [org type], [size band], [SIC codes], [geography]
Problem cost today: £[ ] or [ ] hours a year, from [n] interviews, [month year]
TAM = [count] ([publisher, year]) × £[price] ([evidence]) = £[ ]
SAM = [count in the segments we can serve now] ([source]) × £[price] = £[ ]
SOM year 3 = [reps or channels] × [deals a year] × [years] − [ ]% churn
= [customers] × £[price] = £[ ] ([ ]% of SAM)
Cross-check, context only: [analyst or BIPC figure, publisher, year] = £[ ]
Growth: [ ]% a year to [year] ([source])
Segments: A [count × price], B [count × price]
Value chain: who makes [ ], who sells [ ], who supports [ ], who pays [ ]
Barriers to entry and our answer to each: [regulation, procurement, switching cost]
UK position: [UK firms] versus [international players]
Secondary markets (lily pads): [market 2: count × price, when, via what]
New or unexplored market? Precedent: [spend on the workaround or an analogous adoption curve]
Show the competitors, including "do nothing"
Innovate UK asks for "any similar innovation and its current limitations, including those close to market or in development"; references "not offered or are not relevant" score 3–4.1 The most underrated rival is inertia, "a known pain versus an unknown potential gain".2
| Option | [attribute 1 customers named] | [attribute 2] | [attribute 3] | Cost to the customer today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do nothing (spreadsheet, manual process) | £[ ] a year ([hours × rate]) | |||
| Incumbent A ([vendor page, year]) | £[ ] | |||
| Adjacent product B | £[ ] | |||
| Research-stage C (patent [number], [applicant]) | not yet on sale | |||
| You, at month [n] of the project | £[ ] |
Take the columns from what interviewees said matters; mark where you are worse as well as better. Find rivals in interviews, patent searches (which double as freedom-to-operate, FTO, evidence) and BIPC "key players" lists.9
Write the route to market stage by stage
"Many projects fall down on the route to market aspect and don't demonstrate that they have engaged likely customers or manufacturers."2 Write one block per stage, with one business model and one price basis ("Own the simple business model", Y Combinator5):
- Pilotone named buyer, a paid pilot fee, an owner in your team
- First salesthe channel, sales cycle and conversion the pilot taught you
- Scalea second channel, partner or framework listing
- After the projectthe investment, approval or certification that comes next, with a date
ROUTE TO MARKET (one block per stage: pilot, first sales, scale)
Stage: [pilot | first sales | scale], months [ ] to [ ]
Channel: [direct | partner or distributor | licence | platform | public procurement]
Buyer: [role] Budget holder: [role, budget line] User: [role]
Price and model: £[ ] per [unit], [subscription | licence | per use | capital + service]
Evidence: [n] willingness-to-pay answers, [paid pilot £], [LOI (letter of intent) price band]
Sales cycle: [ ] months, from [pilot | sector norm, source]
Conversion: [ ] of [ ] [warm intros | demos | tenders] become customers
Volume this stage: [customers] = [reps or partners] × [deals a year]
Owner: [name, role] Made by: [ ] Supported by: [ ]
Evidence attached: [LOI with volume and price | pilot sheet | partner terms]
After the project: [board approval | investment round | certification | framework listing], by [month year]
| Channel | Fits when | Costs you | Evidence that convinces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct sales | high price, few buyers, long cycle | reps' salaries, not grant-fundable18 | pipeline by stage, paid pilots |
| Partner, distributor, reseller | many small buyers a partner already sells to | margin share, partner training | signed terms; a downstream partner in the consortium "can really add weight to your exploitation plans"2 |
| Licensing | your IP improves someone else's product; no sales force | a royalty instead of revenue | term sheet, the licensee's market access |
| Platform or marketplace | self-serve, low price | listing fees, commission | conversion from listing to paid |
| Public procurement | the NHS, councils or central government buy it | bid hours, compliance, long cycles | a pilot with a named trust, a framework place, a paid development contract |
Public routes: How public procurement works now and Selling innovation to the public sector.
A paid public development contract as a first stage
Innovate UK's "CfI: Battery innovation for dual use and defence phase 1" (closes 4 November 2026): "Organisations can apply for a share of £2 million, inclusive of VAT"; "Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only."19 That is a route-to-market stage with an invoice and a named buyer.
Long cycles go in the risk register
"'Bad' risks would include poor management, a weak consortium, a poorly defined route to market"; "rating the risks overall as low will mark down your score".2 Log the NHS or enterprise cycle as a commercial risk, mitigated by a named pilot, a framework listing or a second channel.
Researchers: licence or spin out, and what the university takes
The technology transfer office (TTO) and the academic "jointly decide whether to licence the IP to an existing company for a licensing fee or use it as the basis for a spin-out".10 Of 641 ICURe projects, the Options Roundabout sent 40% to spin-out through Exploit, 8% to private spin-out, 17% to licensing and 32% back to research.20
| Equity term | Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies, November 202310 |
|---|---|
| Life sciences | TenU's University Spin-out Investment Terms (USIT) Guide as a starting point: 10–25% university equity |
| Software and less IP-intensive sectors | "much lower, with university equity of 10% or less" |
| Average stake over ten years | fell from about 25% to about 18% |
| Top universities | "most deals at 5-15% equity" |
| Opening position founders reported | negotiations "start at an average of 34%" |
Investors told the Review large stakes make spin-outs less investable. In a bid, give the licence status in one line: agreed, in negotiation or term sheet signed. See From research to company.
Price it and prove the business model
| Method | Gives you | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| "What does this problem cost you now?" (The Mom Test) | a value ceiling from past behaviour | "How much would you pay?" is a bad question; ask about specific past events21 |
| Van Westendorp's four questions: too expensive, getting expensive, a bargain, too cheap to trust | an acceptable price range and an indifference point | assumes respondents can picture prices; does not estimate demand22 |
| Pre-order, deposit, paid pilot | a price someone paid | small numbers; early adopters may be "not the actual market itself"13 |
| Renewal | the price confirmed | takes a year |
Simon-Kucher: 72% of innovations miss their financial targets or fail outright.23 Sean Ellis: "the final validation is charging for your product (or a version of it)".24 Give respondents and segment with every pricing claim.
Strategyzer on the business model: "Treat it as a claim, not a plan"; "Date and version the canvas, then redraw it as evidence comes in".25
| a16z's honesty rules8 | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| "A common mistake is to use bookings and revenue interchangeably" | a signed contract is not cash |
| Gross profit after "all costs associated with the manufacturing, delivery, and support" | a 90% software margin with unpaid onboarding is fiction |
| LTV (lifetime value) is profit over the relationship; measured 12- and 24-month LTV beats projected lifespans | revenue LTV flatters by the whole margin |
| Paid CAC (customer acquisition cost) beside blended, including referral fees and discounts | "Costs typically go up as you try and reach a larger audience" |
| Gross churn, not only net revenue churn | upsell can hide lost customers |
| No cumulative charts; label the axes | they "can go up-and-to-the-right even when a business is shrinking" |
Payback arithmetic
CAC £1,000; £100 a month per customer at 85% gross margin, so £85 a month of contribution. Payback = 1,000 ÷ 85 = 11.76, about 11.8 months. LTV:CAC of 3:1 and payback under 12 months are conventions; we found no primary source for either. First Round's levels put CAC payback under 18 months at "Strong" product-market fit and under 12 months at "Extreme".11
BUSINESS MODEL AND NUMBERS (every figure matches the market model)
Model: [subscription | licence | per use | hardware + service]; one model, one price basis
Price: £[ ] per [unit]; evidence: [n] interviews, [paid pilot £], [LOI band]
Revenue y1 / y2 / y3 = customers (from SOM) × price × retention [ ]% = £[ ] / £[ ] / £[ ]
Gross margin: [ ]% after delivery, support, hosting or manufacturing
CAC by channel: direct £[ ], partner £[ ], paid £[ ]
Payback: CAC ÷ (monthly revenue × gross margin) = [ ] months
LTV (profit; 12- and 24-month measured where possible): £[ ]; LTV:CAC = [ ]
Cases: low [ ] / base [ ] / high [ ], naming the assumption that moves each
Grant return by year [ ]: £[revenue], [jobs], £[exports] per £1 of grant
After the project: [investment round £ | board approval | certification], by [month year]
Innovate UK's first fundamental question: "Is it a big enough market? Does it represent value for money compared to the investment requested?"2 The grant-return line answers that.
Calibrate projections against published levels
Place your projection on First Round's levels of PMF (product-market fit), 2024:11
- 4Extreme100+ customers, $25M+ ARR; two or more channels, over 15% first-call-to-close; CAC payback under 12 months
- 3Strong25–100 customers, $5M–$25M ARR; over 10% of inbound from referrals; CAC payback under 18 months
- 2Developing5–25 customers, $500K–$5M ARR; an early scalable channel, about 10% first-call-to-close; NRR (net revenue retention) at least 100%
- 1Nascent3–5 customers, $0–$500K ARR; warm network, about 1 in 10–20 warm intros converts; no renewals yet
The worked example's 360 customers by year 3, from a standing start, is Extreme on customer count while its £1.1m ARR is Developing: say what makes that credible or scale it back. The dollar figures are US SaaS; the shapes transfer. Sam Altman's B2B test: "do you have at least 10 paying customers?"26
Weak and strong, hypothetical
Weak: market
The global compliance software market is worth $40bn and growing at 12% a year. Capturing just 1% would give us $400m in revenue.
Strong: market
258,520 UK firms employ 10 to 249 people (DBT, Business Population Estimates, 2025); our three sectors hold about 30,000 of them (BPE sector tables, 2025). At £3,000 a year (median of 14 willingness-to-pay answers, July 2026; two pilots paid £2,500) that is a £90m serviceable market. Two sales staff closing 60 deals a year each reach 360 customers by year 3, about £1.1m ARR, 1.2% of it.
Weak: route to market
We will sell through a mix of direct sales, channel partners, an app store and public tenders, and expect rapid adoption across the NHS.
Strong: route to market
Pilot, months 1 to 9: direct; buyer the head of pharmacy at [named trust]; payer the medicines optimisation budget; paid pilot £8,000; owner our CEO. First sales, months 10 to 24: four further trusts introduced by the pilot lead, 9 to 12 month cycle, 1 in 4 demos converting, £30,000 a year each. Scale, year 3: a framework listing applied for in month 18. The NHS cycle is risk R4; mitigation, a second channel through [named supplier], a consortium partner.
Airbnb's early deck (c. 2008–09)
Market headline: "2 Billion+ trips that are booked worldwide on a yearly basis", sourced to the Travel Industry Association. Model: 10% commission; $200M revenue (2008 to 2011) on a 15% market share and a $25 average fee. It raised $600K; sources disagree on the year.17 Our reading: copy the named source for the headline; do not copy the 15% share, which nothing on the slides derives.
Pitfalls
| Pitfall | Why it costs | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| An analyst TAM as the headline | "relying on third-party analysts"; no inputs to check6 | bottom-up count; analyst figure as cross-check |
| UK, EU and global mixed | the reachable market is unclear; the EIC asks for a realistic share3 | one layer per geography, labelled |
| No publisher or year on a figure | unverifiable; assessors cannot click links16 | "(publisher, year)" inline |
| Adjacent markets added together | double counting | size the customer, not the technology |
| SOM as a picked percentage | "1% of a huge market" | reps × deals × years, less churn |
| Sales capacity that cannot deliver the numbers | the P&L contradicts the SOM | reconcile headcount; show who pays for the hires |
| Model customer differs from pitch customer | "usually cause for pausing"6 | one customer line everywhere |
| "No competitors" | the form asks for similar innovations; 3–4 band1 | include "do nothing" and research-stage rivals |
| Pilot early adopters treated as the market | may be "not the actual market itself"13 | say who piloted and who declined |
| A menu of business models | "Own the simple business model"5 | one model, one price basis |
Checklist
Questions
How do I calculate TAM, SAM and SOM for a UK business?
TAM: count the customers who fit your definition in the Business Population Estimates, ONS or Nomis business counts, or Companies House, and multiply by an evidenced price. SAM: narrow to the sectors, sizes and places you can serve now. SOM: salespeople or partners × deals each a year × years of selling, less churn, × price.
What percentage of the market is a credible SOM?
None; picking one is the mistake. A credible SOM is what your named sales capacity and conversion produce, so the percentage is an output. In the worked example, two reps closing 60 deals a year for three years reach 1.2% of a 30,000-firm serviceable market.
Where can I find free UK market size data?
Business Population Estimates (DBT), ONS "UK business: activity, size and location", Nomis UK Business Counts (by SIC and size band, down to local areas) and Companies House's monthly company data. IBISWorld, Mintel and Euromonitor are free at a Business & IP Centre with a Reader Pass, some on site only. Espacenet, Google Patents and The Lens are free for competitor searches.
What does Innovate UK want in the market awareness answer?
Market size "backed up by references", segmentation, growth rates "within clear timeframes", value chains, barriers to entry and the UK position. The 9–10 band is a market "fully quantified and evidenced" with barriers "identified and addressed"; a poorly quantified addressable market scores 5–6.
How do I write the route to market in a grant application?
One block per stage (pilot, first sales, scale) naming the channel, buyer and budget holder, price and model, sales cycle, conversion, volume and owner, with the evidence for each. Say who makes, sells and supports the product, and what happens after the project. Put long cycles in the risk register with a mitigation.
Should a university spin-out license the IP or spin out, and how much equity does the university take?
The TTO and the academic decide together; of 641 ICURe projects, 40% went to spin-out via Exploit, 17% to licensing and 32% back to research. The 2023 Independent Review suggests 10–25% university equity for life sciences and 10% or less for software; average stakes fell from about 25% to about 18%.
Sources
-
Innovate UK, Growth Catalyst Investor Partnerships Round 2 assessor guidance (competition 2360): questions on need or challenge, market awareness, and outcomes and route to market, with scoring bands. https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/2360/download/26392 ↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Innovate UK Business Connect, Good Application Guide, 2024. https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Business-Connect-Good-Application-Guide_2024.pdf ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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European Innovation Council, EIC Accelerator guide for applicants v6.0, 19 November 2025 (Work Programme 2026). https://eic.ec.europa.eu/document/download/9d96fbf3-4d85-4ad0-9483-c77ce348111d_en?filename=EIC%20Accelerator%20guide%20for%20applicants_WP26.pdf ↩↩
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Department for Business and Trade, Business Population Estimates for the UK and regions 2025: statistical release (businesses at the start of 2025). https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/business-population-estimates-2025/business-population-estimates-for-the-uk-and-regions-2025-statistical-release ↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Michael Seibel, Y Combinator, "How to Pitch Your Company". https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/how-to-pitch-your-company/ ↩↩↩
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VentureBeat, "10 tips for acing your market size slide", 17 February 2018. https://venturebeat.com/2018/02/17/10-tips-for-acing-your-market-size-slide ↩↩↩↩↩
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Launchrock, "Market opportunity", expert advice library. https://www.launchrock.com/library/expert-advice/market-opportunity ↩↩
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Andreessen Horowitz, "16 Startup Metrics". https://a16z.com/16-startup-metrics/ ↩
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British Library Business & IP Centre, London Industry Guide 2026 (updated March 2026). https://www.bl.uk/files/v5dwkion/production/6f1f8271aa5f060ee0af0ea9df8f15de681c5eba.pdf/bipc-london-industry-guide-2026.pdf?dl ↩↩
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Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies (Tracey and Williamson), November 2023. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6549fcb23ff5770013a88131/independent_review_of_university_spin-out_companies.pdf ↩↩
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First Round, "Levels of PMF", Session 01, 2024. https://www.firstround.com/pmf/levels ↩↩
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CB Insights, "Why startups fail: top reasons", 5 March 2026 (431 VC-backed shutdowns since 2023; causes identified for 385). https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/startup-failure-reasons-top/ ↩
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Startup Genome, Report Extra on Premature Scaling, v1.2, March 2012 (data on more than 3,200 startups). https://s3.amazonaws.com/startupcompass-public/StartupGenomeReport2_Why_Startups_Fail_v2.pdf ↩↩↩↩
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Innovate UK, Efficient, Structured and Controllable AI Systems, competition 2582, closes 18 November 2026 (400-word limits on the market and route-to-market answers). https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/2582/overview/9fdb47a5-011c-4c47-ac5e-c426e295fe89 ↩
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Innovate UK, Investor Partnerships: Battery Innovation Programme, competition 2595, closes 25 November 2026 (market size "backed up by references where available"). https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/2595/overview/f2b849f6-0fb3-4012-be1b-a41813c93085 ↩
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KTN (now Innovate UK Business Connect), Good Application Guide, 2020. https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/KTN-Good-Application-Guide.pdf ↩↩
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Launchrock, "Airbnb pitch deck teardown and redesign". https://www.launchrock.com/library/expert-advice/airbnb-pitch-deck-teardown-and-redesign ↩
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UKRI, Innovate UK costs guidance for non-academic organisations, updated 28 August 2026 (market assessment only where essential to the scope; direct sales ineligible). https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/guidance-for-applicants/costs-we-fund/costs-guidance-for-non-academic-organisations/ ↩↩
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UKRI, "CfI: Battery innovation for dual use and defence phase 1", closes 4 November 2026. https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/cfi-battery-innovation-for-dual-use-and-defence-phase-1/ ↩
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Innovate UK Business Connect, ICURe 10 Year Impact Report, February 2025 (Options Roundabout outcomes over 641 projects), and the ICURe programme page (Explore: 12 weeks full time, up to £35,000). https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ICURe-10-Year-Impact-Report.pdf and https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/programme/icure/ ↩↩
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Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test, as summarised in the mtlynch.io book report. https://mtlynch.io/book-reports/the-mom-test/ ↩
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Wikipedia, "Van Westendorp's Price Sensitivity Meter" (method introduced 1976). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Westendorp%27s_Price_Sensitivity_Meter ↩
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Simon-Kucher, Monetizing Innovation (Ramanujam and Tacke): "72% of innovations fail to meet their financial targets". https://www.simon-kucher.com/en/insights/monetizing-innovation ↩
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Sean Ellis, "When should a startup start charging?", 2 September 2009. https://www.startup-marketing.com/when-should-a-startup-start-charging/ ↩
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Strategyzer, "The Business Model Canvas". https://www.strategyzer.com/library/the-business-model-canvas ↩
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Sam Altman, Y Combinator Startup Playbook. https://playbook.samaltman.com/ ↩↩
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Office for National Statistics, Business: activity, size and location (2026 edition from a snapshot of the Inter-Departmental Business Register, IDBR, taken on 13 March 2026). https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation ↩
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Nomis, UK Business Counts (enterprises and local units by 5-digit SIC 2007, employment size band and legal status, down to MSOA, Middle layer Super Output Area). https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/ukbc ↩↩
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Companies House, free company data product (basic company data snapshot, updated within five working days of month end; page dated 1 October 2026). https://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html ↩
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European Patent Office, Espacenet (150 million+ patent documents) https://www.epo.org/en/searching-for-patents/technical/espacenet ; Google Patents help (120 million+ publications) https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/7049585 ; The Lens (200 million+ scholarly records) https://about.lens.org/ ↩
Written for businesses, founders and researchers in the North West of England and checked against the sources listed above on 18 October 2026. Funders change their rules, so always read the current call before you apply. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.