Vision needs oxygen, but it also needs gravity.

Reader Terry from New York wrote me after my recent post Every Inventor Needs a Trusted Skeptic, and his question is a good one.

“I can see how innovators can fool themselves about an inflated Total Addressable Market,” he wrote. “You always want to project everyone who might buy the product. Investors need to share the fullest vision, stakeholders and team members have to see all the potential, and can’t be expected to on their own. How do you keep it real?”

That tension is unavoidable. Teams need momentum. Investors want upside.

Huge TAMs feel like necessary fuel, right?

But they’re phoney fuel.

The most reliable way I know to keep things real is to ask ideal buyers to spend actual money early.

Not simply to say, “that’s cool,” to click or to subscribe.

To pre-order, for reals.

Pre-orders collapse theory into behavior. They reveal friction immediately. They show which features unlock wallets and which ones only get easy nods.

The Tesla Cybertruck is a fun example. (Fun for me, if not so much for Elon.)

Massive reservation numbers suggested inevitability. But the deposits were absurdly tiny for a very expensive EV.

When commitment got real, and a few other dynamics kicked in, most of those folks backed out.

Meaningful money clarifies everything.

Once you see real commitment, you have honest data to use for the calculations you’ll give investors.

If there’s a flaw or major gap, you flush it out early, while it’s still cheap to fix.

Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as product marketing consultants at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.