— Niklas Jansen 👊

How to build and market a new product category

These companies are category creators.

They create new market spaces through breakthrough innovations.

Account of revenue growth

47 %53 %

Account of market capitalisation growth

26 %

74 %

Companies that created a categoryCompanies that did not create a category

Fortune’s lists of the 100 fastest-growing U.S. companies from 2009 to 2011

„Category creators experience much faster growth and receive much higher valuations from investors than companies bringing only incremental innovations to market.“– Havard Business Review

Beyond economics

Category creation may be the most fun you can have in business

It’s like surfing the unsurfable. 🤙

Market opportunity, yeah!

Market opportunity.. Or a fantasy?

The everlasting struggle

100kpaying subscriber

2mnregistered users

$17mn venture capital raised

200%y-o-y revenue growth

Seven things we learned.

How to build and market a new product category

LEARNING #1

Create a culture of learning

Culture > Everything else

#AlwaysLearning

Learn to unlearn

LEARNING #2

Changes are an opportunity

Understand what drives change

Demo-graphics Culture

RegulationTechnology

LEARNING #3

Identify the annoyances society has accepted

Start with the answers

Create empathy for your potential users

How do people solve their problem today?

Immerse yourself

Collect data points

LEARNING #4

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Validate your ideas

„Guerilla Customer Development“

LEARNING #5

It’s 50/50 product, branding

Make it easy to understand (and still cool)

Establish a frame of reference

MAYA – “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”

Creative marketing

LEARNING #6

There’s always competition

There’s always a substitute

Competition helps legitimize a market

LEARNING #7

Be foolish 💪

„You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.“

– Steve Jobs

Surf with us. We’re hiring. $

@jansenniklas n@blinkist.com