Category Pirates

Making a difference, for people who make a difference. Writing, teaching, and podcasting about the greatest (underground) skill in business. Category design. With the legendary Eddie Yoon & Katrina Kirsch.

Co-creator

Airspeed

Helping the Airspeed team cure the Digital Disconnect.

Advisor

Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different

CoAuthor Niche Down

Podcaster

Lochhead on Marketing

#1 apple business podcast focused on marketing & category creation/design

HarperCollins Publishers

Every entrepreneur looking to alter the landscape and every CEO looking to reimagine their business can learn from this book. Play Bigger provides inspiration and a framework for building companies that transcend gravity.” — Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce

“Play Bigger is the new how-to guide for entrepreneurs and executives who want to build legendary, enduring companies.” — Jim Goetz, Partner, Sequoia Capital

In this widely acclaimed, farsighted new book, the authors rely on experience, data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of “category kings”— companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, and IKEA—that give us new ways of living, thinking or doing business, often solving problems we didn’t know we had. 

Crossing the Chasm revolutionized how we think about new products in an existing market. The Innovator’s Dilemma taught us about disrupting an aging market. Now, Play Bigger is transforming business once again, showing us how to create the market itself with the new discipline of "category design."

CoAuthor: Play Bigger How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets

HalloApp

Play Bigger Advisors, LLC.

Advised over 30 Silicon Valley venture-backed startups in strategy, marketing & category design.
CoAuthored Harper Collins "Instant Classic" Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets.

co-founding partner

LOCHHEAD Enterprises, Inc.

Advised over 20 Silicon Valley venture-backed startups on Strategy, Marketing and Category Design

Founder

Orchestria

Board Director

Mercury Interactive (Acquired by HP)

I was lucky to be with a great team of people @ Mercury. HP Acquired the company for $5B in November of 2006, after Mercury had grown to over $1B in sales.

Chief Marketing Officer

Ever notice how much content is actually content-free-content?

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m a friend to the different and am  best known for Play Bigger, Category Pirates and being a Godfather of Category Design.
🏴‍☠️

I help startup founders, CEOs, marketers, creators, and ambitious professionals category design legendary markets and careers in a post-AI world.

**Why Category Design & Creator Capitalism?**

Category designers create markets, not competition, capturing **76% of the value** in the spaces they pioneer. 

Creator Capitalists unlock their different **superpower**—that unique edge only they bring—to build wealth and impact in an AI-driven economy. 

Whether you’re launching a company or redefining your career, I’ll show you how to own your niche and thrive.

**What I Do:**

With my partners at Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️ I empower you to:

*Design & dominate new markets through writing, courses, and community.

*Discover your superpower to become a Creator Capitalist, mastering your career in the AI era.

*Build legendary businesses & careers with strategies from our #1 Amazon-charting books.

Join us at **www.categorypirates.com** to start pirating.

**My Track Record:**

*Author: Co-authored 14 #1 bestsellers, including *Play Bigger* (the first book on category design), *Niche Down*, and *Snow Leopard*.

*Podcaster: Host of Follow Your Different* (“Best Business Podcast” – Podcast Magazine) and Lochhead on Marketing (#1 charting).

*Newsletter: Run Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️ Substack (top 0.5% paid business newsletter).

*Career: Former 3X Silicon Valley public company CMO, advisor, and VC limited partner.

**What People Say:**

*Play Bigger is required reading for entrepreneurs altering the landscape.” *Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce
*“A quasar of energy and ideas.” – Bill Walton, NBA Legend
*“Off-putting to some, but undeniably brilliant.” – The Economist

*The Future Needs You

If you’re ready to category design a market or unleash your superpower? 

Connect with me or visit **www.categorypirates.com**. 

Let’s build something legendary—together. 
🏴‍☠️

Christopher Lochhead🏴‍☠️

My brother Tushar Atre was murdered 2,228 days ago. Today, we head back to court. This is the third of four trials for the men who killed him.

Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️

“A quasar, a godfather of category design” Bill Walton | “Off-putting to some” The Economist | 15X #1 author Play Bigger & Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️| #1 Charting Apple Business Podcast

My friend brother Tushar Atre was killed 2,228 days ago. Today, we head back to court. This is the third of four trials for the men who murdered him. 

Open article: Walking Through Fire: 2,228 Days Since My Brother’s Murder by Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ • 4 min read

Walking Through Fire: 2,228 Days Since My Brother’s Murder

Today is Al Ries Day. Yeah, I’m celebrating. And you should too. Because the man earns his own damn holiday. If you care about marketing, entrepreneurship, category design, business strategy, or frankly winning, then you owe Al Ries more than a polite nod. You owe him a standing ovation.

Today is Al Ries Day. Yeah, I’m celebrating. And you should too. Because the man earns his own damn holiday. If you care about marketing, entrepreneur

Open article: Happy Al Ries Day by Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ • 3 min read

I always love it when people (donkeys) say, “category design is hard”… to which I respond. 

As compared to what?

Building a legendary company. Hard. 

Building a legendary product. Hard. 

Category designing a new market. Hard. 

If you don’t like to do hard legendary things. 

Get a job at the DMV.

Thank you for risking your lives, to save our lives.

No alternative text description for this image

Black Friday Is Stupid. Here’s Why: Every November, companies reenact the same clown show 🤡

•Slash prices. 
•Torch margins.
•Fight for existing demand.

Call it “strategy.”
It’s not strategy.
It’s surrender.

Black Friday is when a business publicly announces:
“We have no real category, no real POV, and no real value… so here’s 40% off.”

If you want to see how this movie ends, just look at Groupon. 
The company that turned Black Friday into a business model.

At IPO, Groupon was worth around $13B.
Today it’s limping along under $1B.

A 95% vaporization of value.
All because it trained customers to only show up when prices were in the basement.

That’s what happens when you live by discounting:

•You become a commodity.
•You teach your buyers to wait you out.
•And you die slowly, on sale.

Every business running Black Friday is doing a Mini-Groupon.

•A little hit of the same drug.
•A little erosion of brand, belief, and pricing power.
•A little “race to the bottom” disguised as “a busy weekend.”

Legendary category designers don’t bribe people to buy.
•They create value.
•They create demand.
•They create word of mouth.
So yeah.

Black Friday is stupid.
And to celebrate the stupidity?

Our new #1 bestselling Lightning Strike Marketing book is $100.
A middle finger to the publishing industry. 🖕
And to the Black Friday discount death cult. 🖕

Be legendary or be discounted.
Pick one.
🏴‍☠️

Most people. Accept the premise. If you want a legendary career, you gotta stop playing by inherited rules. 🏴‍☠️

Most people. Accept the premise. If you want a legendary career, you gotta stop playing by inherited rules. The fastest way to stay average is to acce

Open article: Reject the Premise by Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ • 3 min read

Most people have no idea how to value their value. And most companies? Even worse. 

They spend 51 weeks out of the year trying to convince the world they’re of value.

Only to torch their own brand. 
In one glorious, annual, self-inflicted ritual of value destruction: 
Black Friday.
🤡

Next week, you will witness the single greatest mass devaluation event in modern commerce.

A global orgy of:
“Please, please, PLEASE buy from us...we’ll do ANYTHING!”
The sad part?

None of the companies doing this actually need to.
They’re just trapped in the herd.

Following the script someone else wrote.
(Like the sad-uniformed donkey's they are)

Here’s the uncomfortable truth no one in marketing wants to admit:
The easiest way to crush yourself is to make your category worthless.

And nothing makes your category worthless faster than telling the world:
“Hey! Remember everything we said about being:

•scarce
•quality
•crafted
•curated
•premium
•advanced
•meaningful
•purpose-built 
•and category-defining?

Yeah. 
Forget all that. 
"Today we’re cheap.”

Once you burn belief. 
It doesn’t (just) grow back.

Legends don’t participate in the annual race to the bottom.
•They reject the premise.
•They set their value.
•Their own rules.
•Their own POV.

And the market comes them.
So please (with whiskey on top) value your value.
🙏

Stop teaching people to expect less.
Stop training your customers to wait for discounts.
Stop telling the world your product isn’t worth what you say it is.

Because if you don’t value your value…
No one else will.
(Read this three times)

And next week, while everyone else is lighting their brand equity on fire for sport?

You’ll be building yours.
Strengthening your category.
And proving what legends already know:

Price isn’t a number.
Price is belief.

And belief, once broken, is hell to rebuild.
Hold the line.

Protect the premium.
And for the love of all things holy.
Don’t Black Friday your future.
🏴‍☠️

Ps. Our new Lightning Strike Marketing book, is the first $100 book to hit #1 on the Amazon Global Marketing Chart.

It will not be on sale next week.
Hit the l!nk in comments to pick up yours.
The book also makes a legendary (not-discounted) gift.
😎

The Marketing Blender

Develop and lead strategic marketing for companies to include: revenue generation, online conversion, branding, product strategy, pricing, content, events, digital marketing,  buyer persona, buyer journey, and go-to-market plans

Fractional CMO

MarketVines

CMO's find and deliver marketing patterns to scale growth. Leveraging experience in Gen AI and IoT to mentor and advise scale-up executive teams on business growth strategies.  
AI-powered high-performing B2B revenue processes in complex and emergent ecosystems. Exponential growth of tech products especially, IoT, AI, and SaaS revenue development. Authenticity inspires buyers.
Go-to-market (GTM) strategic planning, competitive positioning, demand generation/field marketing, communication flows, and rigorous project management.
Business development, penetrating Fortune 500 and mid-market verticals business development, market identification, ideal positioning, competitive analysis, GTM strategy, and hands-on deal development, negotiation to close.
Product marketing and lead development in alignment with sales needs (content and use case writer, website optimization, demand generation, SEO, leads...and more leads) and long-term company development and revenue processes (product-market fit, go-to-market, positioning, branding).AI-powered high-performing B2B revenue processes in complex and emergent ecosystems. Exponential growth of tech products especially, IoT, AI, and SaaS revenue development. Authenticity inspires buyers. Go-to-market (GTM) strategic planning, competitive positioning, demand generation/field marketing, communication flows, and rigorous project management.
Skills: Change Management · Marketing Budget Management · Campaign Execution · Analytical Skills · Leadership · Digital Marketing · Sales · Marketing Strategy · Business Strategy · Relationship Building · Business-to-Business (B2B) · High Sense of Urgency · Key Metrics · Strategy · Build Strong Relationships · Account Segmentation · Consulting

University of St. Thomas - Opus College of Business

Serve as industry executive sharing practical, current perspectives and expertise, transformational technology entrepreneurship and leadership. 
Professor for Entrepreneurial Thinking in the Masters of Science Management program.

Corporate Fellow/Adjunct Faculty

Transforma Insights

Complex ecosystem market growth and strategy, thought leader, speaker, and author: 
Complex ecosystem marketing, SaaS, IoT, AI landscape, digital transformation; Tech Expo, IoT Evolution etc.; research and strategy re: Gen AI market growth models and methods

Vice President

Aisera

Series D Gen AI customer and employee experience
10X'd outbound sales qualified meetings $20M+ pipeline in 12 months
ABM channel, Marketo, Hushly, 6Sense conversion environment

Director of Demand Generation and Growth

Fever Inspect

Launched and led, patented material science innovation in an IoT device using AI on a SaaS platform. Thermal Diagnostic LLC's flagship thermal imaging-based product, the Fever Inspect, conducted 100,000's accurate temperature tests in law firms, manufacturing plants, and senior care facilities in APAC, EMEA, and North America markets providing accurate, reliable, and foolproof fever detection.

Co-Founder

Cassia Networks, Inc.

- Market expansion of N. America and Europe
- Successful, C-round funding $25m
-Winner of Consumer Electronics (CES) Innovation awards in 2016, 2017; Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) Bluetooth World award 2017.
-Fortune 500 reference clients, medical device, education, and industrial automation markets

Internet of Things (IoT) product launch and market development involving marketing strategy, branding, and development for Bluetooth IoT wireless company with operations in San Jose and Beijing. Developing ABM marketing-to-sales lead-focused approach, managing several large cross-market programs including a major new branding initiative, field event management, SEO, content development, awards, speaking opportunities, lead funnel development, new B2B market entry strategy, patents/intellectual property (IP) positioning, and an IoT network use case model among others.

Head of Marketing 

Dotcom-Monitor

Worldwide IT SaaS monitoring for continuous improvement targeting DevOps, network administrator markets for web applications, IoT monitoring, hosted/IP network infrastructure in the financial, education, IaaS, online retail, healthcare, government, and technology markets. Expanded EMEA and APAC markets.

•	Create freemium-to-paid SaaS pipeline for complex technical audience integrating web leads,  customer success team and processes, and account based marketing (ABM) processes
Management responsibility for P/L, strategic SaaS business development partnerships, sales and marketing departments, and web application product market development. 
•	Year over year market growth 125%+
•	Develop market positioning for IT/hosting market, budgets, pricing, manage PR/media presentations, white papers, web copy, field event management, and solution papers.
•	Partnership development, negotiate, maintain and grow key accounts
•	Mentor sales and marketing team members and CRM metrics. Negotiate and coach final deal closing for sales teams in coordination with technical teams. Industry writer/speaker.
•	Drive organizational growth and manage business plans, product requirements, marketing, and sales systems.

Vice President Sales Marketing

CyberPower Systems, Inc.

Worldwide manufacturer of IT power systems, FTTP, and uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
•	Management of market strategy for marketing/sales teams for B2C sales in multi-channel and partner (VAR/Distributors) acquisition and ABM business case positioning. 
•	Drive new product business cases aligning marketing and sales to meet revenue goals.
•	Develop marketing strategy, market development funds (MDFs) and material for distribution partners: white papers, website, partner portal, product catalog, fliers, competitive comparisons, press releases, web videos, scripts/filming, investor presentations, signage, and packaging.

Director of Marketing

Allot Communications

Worldwide deep-IP identification, monitoring, management, and security (ALLT)
*      Successful exit (NASDAQ)
•	Management of multi-channel partner (distributors/VAR) programs and sales for ISP/hosting/telcom market
•	Develop strategic solution sales, presentations, manage market development fund (MDF) program, resulting in 30% increase year-to-year revenues.
•	Strategic marketing to vertical markets – telecom/ISPs, education, enterprise, government, , financial – ABM positioning with international partners, resellers/distributors and end-customers for bandwidth identification hardware/software solution based on market intelligence and two-tier channel market shifts 
•	Drive market positioning for public offering: manage teams and vendors, world-wide re-branding, multi-channel, ROI calculator, scripts, marketing letters, press releases, solution papers, and tradeshows

Channel Marketing Manager

Growing revenues in emergent tech ecosystems for
1. AI, IoT, and SaaS landscapes for organizations seeking short-lived opportunities in fast-moving markets. 
2.Developing strategic paths to revenues with strategic marketing processes designed for complex Industry 4.0 ecosystems. 
3. Evangelizing markets as a leading Industry 4.0 thought leader. 

In parallel, my role as a Growth Consultant allows me to empower executive teams in scaling their ventures within the Industry 4.0 framework. Leveraging expertise in generative AI and IoT, we've devised strategies that not only accelerate success but also anticipate the trajectory of technological evolution. The mission is innovation-centric, rooted in a pursuit of excellence that resonates with the digital zeitgeist.

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Dr. Bradley K. Canham

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Dr. Bradley K. Canham

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