Does your project have a higher market share than Tesla
One of the most common weaknesses in EU funding proposals is how market share is justified. Ambition is not the issue. Arbitrary assumptions are.
One of the most common mistakes we see in EU funding proposals is how market share is justified.
The classic shortcut
Many proposals start with an assumption:
And then everything else is built on top of that number.
The problem is simple.
Why 5% and not 2%, 0.3%, or 12%?
A reality check
Tesla has less than 1% of the total European automotive market.
Yet it has more than 8% of the European electric vehicle market.
Same company. Very different market definitions. Very different market shares.
Two frequent issues
Two patterns appear again and again in proposals:
- Markets are defined too broadly
- Market share is treated as a wish, not as a calculation
When this happens, even strong technologies lose credibility very quickly.
How market share should be derived
Market share is not something you choose. It is something you derive bottom up.
It must be consistent with:
- Your production capacity or service scalability
- Your realistic sales ramp up
- Your business model
And it must be clearly defined as:
- Percentage of revenue, if you sell at a stable price
- Units sold, if you sell physical products
- Number of customers, if pricing varies significantly, which is common in SaaS
What evaluators actually look for
Evaluators are not looking for ambition on paper.
They look for credibility in numbers.
A small, well justified market share is far more convincing than an arbitrary 5%.
This is exactly the type of issue Ruthless Evaluator is designed to flag before submission, when assumptions still have time to be challenged and fixed.
Better to meet Ruthless Evaluator before submission than inside the ESR. ruthlessevaluator.com | ruthlessevaluator.ai
Run an evaluator grade review on the draft
Upload a version, select programme context, and get structured feedback you can act on.