Category Creation

Also called Category Design

Building and defining a new market category rather than competing in an existing one, so you shape how customers think about the problem and become the default answer.

Why it matters

Creating a category can make you the leader of a space you defined, a powerful position, but it means bearing the cost of educating the market. It is high-risk, high-reward, and only worth it when no existing category fits.

For example

Salesforce did not just sell software, it defined the category of cloud CRM and made itself the obvious leader of it.

Worth your time

Related terms

Go deeper

See how founders actually handle this on Growing and marketing, part of the Starting Up hub.

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