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.
😎

SparkForce

Partner & Growth Lead

Driving Demand

Driving Demand is an invite-only community for European B2B marketers obsessed with revenue.

Member

saabyemedia

Acquired by SparkForce in December 2023 🚀

B2B SaaS virksomheder vækster deres omsætning, når de bliver kunder hos os.

Chief Executive Officer

FLEX FUNDING A/S

I Flex Funding har jeg stået for følgende opgaver:
- Google Annoncering
- Facebook annoncering
- E-mail marketing
- Styring af samarbejde med eksternt marketing bureau
- Social media styring
- Digital strategimøder
- Salgsstrategi
- Customer service
- Customer Success Management
- Daglig drift
- Opsøgende salg
- CRM implementering og optimering
- Onboarding og oplæring af nye ansatte
- Vedligeholdelse af blog
- Brobygning mellem IT og business
- Kvalitetssikre IT løsninger
- Test af nye IT tiltag/IT rettelser
- Styring af samarbejde med eksternt telemarketing bureau
- Udarbejdelse af juridiske dokumenter
- Afstemning af likviditet
- Afrapportering af forskellige performance metrics.

Digital Marketing Assistant

Fitness World

Som personlig træner arbejder jeg rigtig meget med mennesker, ikke kun på det fysiske plan men i høj grad også på det psykologiske plan, da alle mine klienter har kigget min vej, når de har søgt motivation til at fortsætte deres træning.  Dette job har givet mig erfaring med deadlines, målsætning og motivation.

Autoriseret personlig træner

Coor Service Management

 Studentermedhjælper i Coor Service Management.  Her har jeg arbejdet meget med facility management, organisering, og til dels økonomi.  Gennem dette job har jeg fået stort ansvar, fordi arbejdstiderne aldrig har været faste. Jeg har skulle organisere min egen tid og arbejde selvstændigt uden supervision.  Dette job har givet mig en væsentlig bedre evne til at strukturer min dag og arbejde med deadlines.

Studentermedhjælper

Partner @ SparkForce | B2B Demand & Revenue Generation for Tech Scaleups

Call it what you want. I run marketing program that drive pipeline and move businesses. 

Frederik Saabye Møller

So, today marks two years since I sold my company and joined SparkForce.

To say that it's been nuts is probably an understatement. 

On milestones like this, I like to reflect a little bit to see how much (if at all, no guarantees there) I've grown. 

I joined as number 9, and today we're 29 people. 

I joined as someone with convictions, and now, I think, I have more questions regarding GTM than answers - healthy if you ask me. 

Back then, I was shouting gated content sucks, and now I have several clients running them - as a touch point - not as a sales signal. Everything in marketing works, if you do it in alignment with your buyers. 

I was a T-shaped marketer with an emphasis on social. I still am, but today I'm a much more of a full-fledged GTM strategist able to connect systems and understand coherence between different departments and create alignment. 

I have worked with clients from Seed stage to big corporate entities and have a much clearer understanding of what each stage requires and what success looks like. 

I've learnt how to delegate (which was probably the first piece of advice I got when I joined).

I think had Casper not placed a bet on me, I would still be fucking around with 8k retainers and 15k monthly budgets. 

Safe to say that this chance has changed my life and my career trajectory. 

So thank you, Casper. 
For betting on an inexperienced, LinkedIn-loud marketer with basically no real track record or real merits. 

I'll be eternally grateful for that.

Architecting GTM motions that turns into revenue for B2B SaaS scale-up companies | CMO @ SparkForce

Dark social is still alive and well - and you still need to optimize for it.

You might discredit the concept and say that "it's marketing's way of escaping credit"

but if you look at the journey below, you'll see that the person that actually inbounded only had 1 session on the page: the one where he converted - even though he technically is part of the targeting. 

What should this tell you about how marketing works?

- The entire buyer group is interesting to market towards because BREAKING: people talk. 
- The internal sales champions might not be the one who converts on the page. 
- Influence is still the name of the game: are you able to put the right message out to the right people convincingly, they will reach out when their timeline aligns. 

Just because dark social isn't getting talked about any more doesn't mean that the effects disappeared.

Was it the solution it was positioned to be? No.
But is it still something you should incorporate when you design your marketing mix? Without a doubt. 

#darksocial #demandgen

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Frederik Saabye Møller

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