Arrrr! Welcome to Category Pirates.

Category Pirates is the authority on Category Creation and Category Design — the business discipline that helps companies create, develop, and dominate new categories of products and services.

Who Is Category Pirates For?

Category Pirates is for:

• Creators: You're done playing the business game everyone else is playing. You want to create a new game where you make the rules, write the scoreboard, and become known for creating a "new to the world" problem/solution that shapes the future.

• Entrepreneurs: You see the BS of "best practices" and reject conventional wisdom that says, "Build a better mousetrap." Instead, you want to create a radical breakthrough that makes mousetraps irrelevant.

• Executives: You're tired of your company getting its ass kicked competing on better/faster/cheaper. You want to design and dominate a category that makes you the only logical choice in the market.

• Marketers: You're sick of the same rinse-and-repeat "content marketing tips." You want to move beyond traditional marketing and learn to position your company as the Category Queen.

Inside Category Pirates, we don't just teach category design — we dive deep into the frameworks, strategies, and mental models used by today's most successful Category Designers. From the Magic Triangle to Languaging to the Art of Fresh Thinking, we give you the tools to become a Category Designer who transforms markets (instead of just competing in them).

Translation: This isn't some BS "thought leadership" newsletter.

Every week, we show you how to "think different" about business through a category lens. (Once you see it, you can’t unsee it!) Most importantly, we explain how to apply category design in a way that makes you the leader everyone else follows.

No copy/paste templates. No "7 tips and tricks." Just radically different thinking that creates different results.

Who Are The Category Pirates?

Category Pirates is written by Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Katrina Kirsch.

Christopher Lochhead is the "godfather" of category design, a #1 Apple Business Podcaster, a co-creator of Category Pirates, and co-author of Play Bigger and Niche Down.

Lochhead is a dyslexic paperboy who got thrown out of school at 18. He’s also a former 3-time Silicon Valley CMO (Vantive, Scient, Mercury Interactive) who has helped create billions in market cap — and been fired a bunch.

The Marketing Journal says he’s "one of the best minds in marketing." The Economist calls him "off-putting to some" (which he considers a compliment).

He thinks whisky is a good thing, The Ramones are legendary, and social media “influencers” and “hustle porn stars” are a scourge on the earth. Lochhead lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife, a flock of hens, and three wild cats.

Eddie Yoon has written more for the HBR on category strategy than any other person.

Eddie is the founder of EddieWouldGrow, a think tank and advisory firm on growth strategy, and a co-creator of Category Pirates. His work has driven over $8 billion in revenue growth, with 8 clients doubling or tripling revenue in under 8 years.

He’s the author of Superconsumers and one of the world’s leading experts on finding and monetizing Superconsumers to grow and create new categories. He has appeared on CNBC and MSNBC and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Forbes. He has also been a keynote speaker in the U.S., Canada, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, the UK, and Japan.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Eddie now lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.

Katrina Kirsch is the “editor for entrepreneurs” who runs Category Pirates and the Category Design Academy.

Katrina helps entrepreneurs position, edit, and publish category-defining books. She has created over 500 articles and several books as a ghostwriter and editor. Her work (if not byline) has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, and Forbes.

Born and raised in Chicago, Katrina began traveling the world at eighteen. After a brief battle with traditional office life in 2015, she switched to a remote work lifestyle and became known as the “crazy” one who was constantly traveling. Wherever she is, Katrina helps category designers get their work out into the world.

Together, we've:

• Advised 50+ venture-backed startups

• Created billions in market capitalization

• Published 70+ HBR articles on category creation

• Written multiple category-defining books

• Been keynote speakers at super-ding dong events

• Helped countless companies become Category Queens & Kings

We believe the difference between the companies everyone talks about and the ones no one remembers comes down to one thing:

Category Design.

What Is Category Design?

Category design is a business discipline that helps companies earn the majority of market share in a specific category of products or services.

Our research shows the Category King of a given market captures 76% of the economics.

It’s a winner-takes-all game.

But most marketers, entrepreneurs, creators, and investors spend their entire careers competing for only 24% of the value opportunity of a given category. They’re not the Category King — and they don’t even know it. As a result, they waste time and effort competing over demand instead of creating new demand.

Category Design involves educating the market about a new, often ignored problem and providing a solution.

When it’s done successfully, you:

• Become known for a niche you own

• Attract a loyal following of high-spending Superconsumers

• Earn the majority of market share

In other words, you make it impossible for someone else to “do what you do.” So, you become the Category Queen/King. And ultimately, you change the world AND create exponentially more value for both shareholders (and the entire market) in the process.

To help you create that future, we help you understand and apply the principles of category design and category creation.

What To Expect On The Category Pirates Ship

As a Category Pirates subscriber, you have our word:

• We will give you tomorrow’s insights, today: You'll get category design frameworks and insights 6-18 months before they hit the mainstream business press. While others are playing catch-up, you'll be creating the future.

• We will never water it down: Each mini-book goes deep into the strategy, psychology, and science of category design. No fluff. No BS. Just pure category thinking that helps you see the world differently.

• We will practice what we pirate: Everything we publish is designed to help you see the world through a category lens. From our unique publishing model (mini-books to big books) to our pirate-y tone, we're creating our own category in business education.

• We will share fresh thinking: Every week, you’ll get a new perspective on category design that will make you think (for weeks!) and frameworks you can apply immediately. If you want to dive deeper, you can access our archive of 200+ mini-books, audiobooks, and videos.

Here's what hits your inbox each week:

• Friday Deep Dives: A rotating mix of mini-books, audiobooks, Contributing Pirate pieces from successful Category Designers, and Pirate Jam Session videos where we break down a specific category design topic

• Tuesday Quick Loot: The "spark notes" of our deep dives, plus gems from the archive

• Monthly Buried Treasure: A roundup of recent posts and valuable category design conversations happening around us

Free subscribers get a preview of every post. But if you want to become a legendary Category Designer, you need the whole treasure chest.

Category Pirates Top Hits

Still wondering if Category Pirates is for you?

Check out our most popular mini-boks — sure to swizzle your brain and sharpen your category design skills.

• The Beginner’s Guide To Category Design: How To Create A Category For Yourself And Your Business

• The Art Of Fresh Thinking: How To Create Obvious & Non-Obvious Content

• Radical Resilience: How To Be Mission-Driven When The Odds Are Against You

• The Content Pyramid: The 5 Levels Of Becoming A Legendary Writer, Creator, And Thought Leader

• How To Leverage Superconsumers For Growth & Category Creation: What Every Business Can Learn From Southwest Airlines

And yes, when you subscribe to Category Pirates, you instantly get access to our entire archive (150+ issues, frameworks, and audiobooks!).

A note on our unique publishing process

While working on a book together for over two years, it became clear we weren’t really writing one long book — we were writing dozens of mini-books.

We felt that instead of cramming all the information together into one big dense stack of paper, our readers would be better off consuming these ideas, frameworks, and new ways of thinking about category design piece by piece, week by week, digitally.

Here’s how it works:

• We publish all new mini-books, audiobooks, and Pirate Jam Session videos to Category Pirates.

• A few weeks after that, we publish certain mini-books as eBooks on Amazon.

• We combine top mini-books into big books and publish them on Amazon as eBooks, physical books, and Audible audiobooks.

If you want to read one mini-book, you might be better off waiting and buying it as an eBook on Amazon. That’s because you will spend between $20–$40 if you subscribe to Category Pirates for 1-2 months. Or you can spend the same amount and buy several big books. You can see what’s available on Amazon here.

Dive in to our “big” books:

• ☠️ The 22 Laws of Category Design: Name & Claim Your Niche, Share Your POV, And Move The World From Where It Is To Somewhere Different

• ❄️ Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One

• ⚒️ The Category Design Toolkit: Beyond Marketing: 15 Frameworks For Creating & Dominating Your Niche

• 📣 A Marketer's Guide To Category Design: How To Escape The "Better" Trap, Dam The Demand, And Launch A Lightning Strike Strategy

If you want to receive new and different category design insights 6-18 months before the rest of the world, you’re better off choosing an annual subscription.

A few words from our readers ❤️

"Every Category Pirates edition is of immense value. Seriously, it’s like a $100,000 MBA with every read." - Steven Olsher, Founder of Podcast Magazine

“Creating a new category is lonely work - everyone tells you you're off-course, except you. Good to have some reinforcement and guidance in these waters.” - Mark B., paid subscriber

“Let me start by confessing that I’m a Category Pirates Superconsumer. I devour each and every essay they write since Play Bigger came out. I could not recommend it more highly.” - Gina Bianchini, Founder and CEO of Mighty Networks

“I love the way you all think! Go Pirates! The world of value creation and value communication viewed through the lens of Category Design looks very different than Marketing, Selling, and Brand Management.” - Kim C Korn, Creator of Regenerative Managing

“Every single person is unique in their own way - why do they then need to get 'branded'. You Pirates continue to produce rock-solid, well-backed, funny, and deeply informative material. Keep going!” - David Loewen, Author of Box Cutter Co. Substack

"I have learned so much from the excerpts that I get in my inbox." - Cheri S., paid subscriber

"I love your work. Your insights are provocative and contrarian, right up my alley! You offer depth on topics most people skim over or ignore altogether. You are opening my eyes to a different way of thinking and I really like that! Thank you for telling the truth about the way things are. It's so refreshing. " - MaryLou K., paid subscriber

Join 32,000+ Category Designers learning how to think different 👇

“Why join the Navy if you can be a pirate?” -Steve Jobs

Looking For A Hands-On Approach?

Sometimes, reading isn’t enough. If you want tactical coaching and personalized mentoring, check out our free and paid programs:

• Strategy Sprint is a free 5-day email course that will help you escape the complexity trap and understand the importance of a radically simple, differentiated business strategy.

• Strategy Therapy is a self-paced digital course that will help you create an honest, bold, and different one-page strategy using category design principles. You’ll see strategy case studies from fellow pirates and get feedback on your strategy in live workshops.

• The Category Design Academy is the first digital business education exclusively for Category Designers. This intensive 10-month training program brings together entrepreneurs, executives, and consultants who want to learn how to create and dominate new markets for themselves and their clients.

What Next? 🏴‍☠️

Join 32,000+ readers from Category Kings like Sequoia, Nestle, Lomi, DUDE Wipes, and more, and start learning how to design and dominate your category.

That’s it from us. We’ll see you in your inbox.

Arrrrrr,

Category Pirates

Eddie Yoon

Christopher Lochhead

Katrina Kirsch

P.S. - Want to learn the fundamentals of category design, fast?

The Category Accelerator is a free 7-day email course that gets you up to speed on core category design principles quickly — so you can start “thinking different.”