YouSaid · the spoken record

Christopher Lochhead

lines on the record: 117
first: 2023-09-17
most recent: 2023-09-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“What are the obstacles in the way? Here's the mental scaffolding. So that's forecasting. Here's backcasting. We do an exercise. We abandon everything. In category design, you get taught to what's called reject the premise. So I reject everything about the way that it is, all of it. You and I now envision this future five years out, and everything's gone incredibly. It's exceeded our expectations. We make that true in our minds. We write out, we brainstorm out, what's it going to be like? What kind of technology are we selling? What are we doing for customers? How big's our company? How many people? And then we say, okay, standing in that future five years out, looking back to the present, what did we do to make this different future happen?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the whole plan. Would be predicated on we're going to start here and we're going to end here. And what do we need to do to get from where we start to where we end? Yes? Now, when going on a backcountry hike, that's a very smart fucking thing to do because if you've ever been on a backcountry hike and you're four days in only to realize you don't have enough food, that's an experience you don't want to recreate. Turns out that while that's highly effective for a hike, it is intergalactic disaster for a startup. Here's why Your point of reference is everything. Thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking. So when we do it that way, mentally, we are standing in the present Which is an extension of the past. And we're saying, what do we need to do to go from this present to the different future we want?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we'd know where we were coming out, right? And we'd have waypoints along the way, yes. Because we knew we were going to be out four days or six days or whatever, we would try to plan our food appropriately.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. So here's the idea. Most people do is you and I are entrepreneurs, we have this idea for product, this problem we can solve. We think we're going to be bazillionaires. We think we're going to help a lot of people. We think we're going to have a lot of fun. And so we have at it. And whether we realize it or not, the mental scaffolding we use goes like this. Lenny and Christopher are sitting here now. We have these big dreams. We think, let's say five years out into the future. What do we want it to? We go through all the dreams, right? Great. And then We ask ourselves, most of this is subconscious, and then it shows up in business plans and other things, what do we need to do to get from here Have you ever done any backcountry hiking, Lenny?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've known him for a long time. Great. And so I said, well, what's the purpose of my, it sounds wonderful, why? What's the purpose of my conversation with so-and-so? And the founder literally said to me I would love it if you would be willing to invest some time in listening to some of our customers to hear from their perspective what the problem is and what the solution could be, not just from me and our team. That is a founder who's obsessed with the problem So that's the first piece. The second piece of advice I'll give you comes, I mentioned Mike Maples. So he's got a very powerful way of kind of framing this. He calls it backcasting as distinct from forecasting. You're nodding your head, you're familiar with this.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Great question, Lenny. So two things, at least. So first, spend more time on the problem. The solution So there's a very early stage security startup I'm working with right now in the AI space that's doing absolutely mind-boggling things. And the founders have incredible backgrounds with large transaction systems and deep security and just incredible company. And I had a call yesterday with the founder and some folks on the product team just getting an update on where they're at and this and that and the other. And we're sort of starting to want to talk to people externally. raised a seed round. VCs are coming. They're very interested. So anyway, we're sort of slowly starting to want to come into the world and begin to have a conversation. So the founder, CEO, sends me a text yesterday and says, I'd like you to, if you're open to it, have a call with so-and-so. He's a very important person, knows a lot about our space.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Languaging is still not sufficient, but we're getting there. New languaging creates new thinking. And a demarcation point in language creates a demarcation point in thinking, which can create a demarcation point in perceived value And she who changes and/or creates net new value perceptions wins.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And today, the entire industry is talking about LLMs. Here's another thing that they created. Training data. Well, those of us who've been around for a long time, we understand what data is. We know what a database is. We know what data in motion is. We know what data at rest is. We know what structured data is. We know what unstructured data is, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We know even if I'm not a data expert by any stretch, but I've been in the industry for 37 years. I know some shit about data. Never heard the term training data And I'm still frankly looking for a breakthrough in languaging to describe it to people because I think when most people realize the difference between data slash content and training data There's a massive breakthrough that can occur there.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You walk into one of those hipster places and ask for a double Grande Latte, the super hipster galler guy behind the counter with the nose ring and shit is going to give you a bit of a drizzle because you're using Starbucks languaging in their location. And that's the other breakthrough. And this is really important in the technology industry. The company that creates the languaging for the category wins. You see that today open AI. Not that long ago, you did not hear the term large language model.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they made up the word. It sounds kind of Italian, Vente, you know? But the truth is, by the way, it's a milkshake, but that's a whole other conversation. They're the number one milk seller in the country. They're a milk company, not a coffee company, but that's, again, a whole other conversation. The point being, if you want to charge three bucks for something that Hereto 4 has been 10 cents or a quarter, change the language. And you know it's Starbucks language like where I live, there's a shit ton of new hipster independent coffee shop type places where they, you know, paint the Mona Lisa in your latte before they give it to you and all that shit.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I got a bazillion of them. Okay, another one of my favorites. When Starbucks first starts, a coffee is 10 cents per day. So you sit there and you go, Well, we can't make money at 10 cents. That doesn't make sense, right? Unit economics don't work for what we're trying to get done. If the ASP in the industry is 10 cents, we want to have an ASP of $3. Well, here's the ah. It's very hard to charge three bucks for a thing. That everybody currently pays a quarter for, if you call it. The same thing So, they create new languaging. They teach. They literally teach consumers new language. That's why you and I walk into Starbucks and say, I'd like a double Grande Latte, please. Well, 25 years ago, that was not language that you and I used. And they use it as a mechanism for radical differentiation and radical value slash price differentiation.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The way you frame, claim, and name the problem, one of the core tenants, Lenny, in category design, is listen to the words Listen to the words And when you listen to the words, you will hear things that you don't normally, right? And so he created new languaging, what in category design is called a point of view, to frame claim and name a problem, which is how do I move shit up and down versus across land. And in so doing, Open people's, the aperture of people's minds created what you could think of as new mental scaffolding for a whole new kind of innovation. And thanks to Alicia Otis, we have tall buildings.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Vertical railway, thank you You can have a new category Of build This is no different than anybody today, for example, in the technology space who's building a new part of the technology stack for AI. So, if you've got a new important security layer for AI that enables a new kind of highly secure AI application, From a languaging perspective, if you just use existing languaging, you'll be like a leash in the beginning where people go, it's really cool, man. Fucking A didn't think that was technically possible. Wow. It's like you've broken gravity, dude. Incredible. Don't know why we would ever need this. See ya. And he goes, wait a minute, wait a minute. What if it was a vertical railway? Oh, well, what could we do with a vertical railway? And so... This is why thinking matters. The way you think about the problem.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And people understand what a railway does. It moves people in shit this way. And he said, well, great. We've now got a vertical elevator that moves people in shit this way. And if you have a vertical elevator,”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People still went, okay, that's interesting, but like, why do I need a safety elevator? It's a solution with no problem. So, what does he do languaging? And in category design, one of the breakthroughs is this thing called a point of view, which helps you frame claim and name a problem and educate the world on why they should move from the way it is to, we call them Frodos from two, and new and different way. So Alicia has to make the market. There's zero demand. It's what many of our smart VC friends call a $0 billion market. Which is what you want. So, what does Alicia call it? The vertical”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, if you do, you will more than likely see this name Otis Otis Elevator Most people don't know why Otis is the category queen of elevators. Well, here's why. Alicia Otis invented the elevator. Pre Alicia, there were no skyscrapers. Because how could you get to the top floor? How could you build the top floor? So, when he creates the elevator, There's no known problem for it to solve. So he demonstrates it. People think it's cool. He shows it like fairs and shit because the big problem with prior elevators was they would crash. And so he built this safety system to catch them if the wiring would crash. And the category name he actually used, Lenny, he called it the safety elevator to address the current problem in the space, which is, I don't know.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, there's something in category design called languaging, which is the strategic use of language to change thinking. And a mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs make is they use old language to describe their new thing. And we can't use so much new language that nobody knows what the fuck we're talking about. So we have to meet the category where it is and bring them forward. But we have to create new language. And can I share with you one of my favorite, most recent favorite category design stories in this regard? So you've been on an elevator, yes Have you ever looked at the floor and seen a logo on the floor of the elevator?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That truly makes a difference in the world with a business model that allows them to build a highly profitable, high growth business. And the way they got there was by designing a new category and showing the world why by making room in your tight kitchen for this new device, you'll make a difference for your family and the world. And if all they had done was what by way of example, Dean Cayman did when he launched the segue, which is, isn't this cool? Nothing would have So, my point is the Lomy guys. Designed a product Company and a new market category. They created demand out of nothing for a, I think the average price is around $400. The sum total of the market for smart home comb posters when they launched was fucking zero. And their vision for the new category was so compelling. Jay-Z was one of their first investors.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so Lomi did not say that we're better garbage, that we're different garbage, that we're better recycling. What they said was we are a different Way of solving this huge problem. And they use both personal motivation. Nobody likes throwing out garbage. Nobody likes a big mess in their kitchen, et cetera. And an altruistic vision, which is, and oh, by the way, if we do this, we will do something that governments heretofore have not been able to do, which is take a massive amount of environment hurting gases out of the atmosphere. And it turns out because of global climate change, that we're creating more and more sand and we have a dirt crisis. Well, loamy dirt has been shown to be amongst the most nutrient rich dirt in the world. So here is a company with a breakthrough technology.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Perfect. So, what's loamy? Lomi is the category designer of the smart home compost composter. So imagine a device that's sort of one and a half or twice the size of a good size toaster. And what Lomy does is you take your food scraps, and it turns out that depending on whose numbers you want to believe in America, we throw away somewhere between 40 to 60 percent of our food. And it turns out that food garbage, food waste, is some of the most damaging to the environment. Okay, so what does Lomi do? You take your food scraps, you dump it into Lomi, you fill that shit up. Lomi's got a button on the front, you press that button. And what used to take three to six months to compost gets composted in three to six hours. And it even, this is weird. It smells good to me.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the reason many of them are so irrascible is because the fact that the present is not already at the future that they see makes them insane. And so, the point being legendary entrepreneurs and creators make the future different. They literally are in the design different futures business. So, can I tell you a story So we're friends, and we've done some work with the guys who created Lomy. And loaming is the first kitchen appliance in 20 years to earn a spot on the kitchen counter. So, A, it's one of the fastest growing new consumer items in the last 20 years. And B, if you think about your kitchen counter. Have a toaster? Coffee mak”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not thinking. So reflexive thinking is hmm. What do I really think Why do I think that And in the business world, Most people unconsciously assume the future is a continuation of the past. Not what legendary entrepreneurs do legendary entrepreneurs don't just think they know the future is going to be different. Because they're designing that different future. And the problem they are focused on matters to them so much that the fact that the problem continues to persist makes them bat shit crazy. I can't remember now at the founder of Rivian, obviously Musk at Tesla. These guys are obsessed. It drives them insane. They don't understand why or not all in EVs already. And so my friend Mike Maples, the legendary venture capitalist from Floodgate, says the greatest entrepreneurs are visitors from the future telling us how it's going to be.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, you have opinions about those things, right? Do I Most people don't challenge their own thinking. Most people say don't go. Now, why do I think what I think about abortion? Where did I learn that? What do I really think about abortion? What do others think about abortion? Are there smart people in the world that I admire who are more educated and experienced in this field that have meaningfully different opinions than my own? Oh, there are. Okay, well, why is that? et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We don't fucking do that. We say our opinion on abortion is the opinion on abortion. And in the United States of America, in the political domain, we say, and anybody who thinks differently is trying to kill America, right?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My point is this the car cuts you off. And Instantly, no thinking reacts in order to save our lives, not damage our vehicles, not hurt anybody else. We didn't think about that. We literally just reacted. Well, that's the way people think about most things. So I say to you, hey, Lenny, let's talk about guns and abortion and immigration rights in America”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And she's testing your reflexes. And that's an involuntary thing when you're sitting on the doctor's table and your legs are hanging like a little kid and she goes, whack, your knee just does this twitch, right? So that's a reflex. And reflexive thinking is very, very powerful. You have a driver's license, I'm guessing. And when was the last time you were in a vehicle driving?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Whatever the fucking tactical thing is, right? Okay, so the first thing we have to do is break down thinking. So Roger Martin is considered to be the greatest management thinker, or certainly one of them alive today. We were lucky enough to have him on the podcast when his last most recent book came out, which, if I'm remembering correctly, is called The New Way to Think. People call him The New Peter Drucker. And here he describes it as effectively as anyone I've ever heard. And he at a high level, and this is me paraphrasing, so give me some license. He's the source. At a high level, there's two kinds of thinking. Reflective and reflexive. Now, this is my editorializing. What most people think is reflective thinking is actually reflexive thinking. So what's reflex versus reflective? Reflex is simple. You go for an annual checkup, yes?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Great question. So it starts somewhere where most people don't want to start And that is the first law of category design is thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking. Thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking. So, if you're going to think about thinking, we have to sort of define thinking. Now, the minute I start down this path, there's a meaningful percentage of people whose eyes roll and go, here comes some bullshit, right? Just tell me.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because the inventor, the creator, the entrepreneur believed in the product but didn't know that every solution has to fit into a problem of value for people. And so their innovation went nowhere.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the funny thing is, Lenny, this just keeps happening over and over and over. Venture capitalists in the next five years will blow at least half a trillion dollars in the AI space alone. On me too Demand chasing existing category competing startups have a 10x better product. No one cares And we're all going to, look, we're all going to sit here and watch them do it. And we, category pirates, and those of us in the category design world, will say, told you. And they're just going to keep doing it. More importantly, you know, because the big companies in many cases can afford to continue to fail and make this mistake. The tragedy in this is how many legendary innovative products never got to see the light of day.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They look exactly if you remember, they look exactly like an Apple store. And Bomber famously told the team. When the Apple stores took off, he famously told the team, go to the Apple stores, study everything they're doing, and let's copy it exactly. Google that shit. It's out there. It didn't work. Why? Because you can't attack an incumbent category queen. Unless You frame, name, and claim a new or different problem. Because when the existing problem is well understood, And the existing solution is well understood, there's no need for a new solution. Even if people quote unquote. Didn't do anything to Twitter. And now Zuck's going to have to write off probably over a billion dollars on threads.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, Red Bull made exactly the same mistake that Zuck just made with threads. What Red Bull believed was we built one of the greatest brands in the world, which they have, but they didn't understand why the category made the brand not the other way around. Energy drink made the category, right? So they go, oh, great, we can put our brand on anything and it'll fail. So let's make cola. Lost a billion dollars. It's reported that Microsoft lost somewhere between $400 and a billion dollars in Microsoft stores. Did you ever go to Microsoft store”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so Bezos launched a better product, and nobody bought it. And the reason nobody bought it is the problem and therefore the solution that you think you're solving with your iPhone is solved with your iPhone. When was the last time you enjoyed a Red Bull Cola?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We believe the best product wins. Zuckerberg is going to blow in excess of a billion dollars on threads, and it will fail. It already has failed because you can't take an existing problem with an existing solution, launch exactly the same shit, tell the world it's better. Have the world embrace it. Because the problem makes the solution the other way around.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With a direct copy, they even were celebrating that it was Twitter just better. I mean, they said virtually those words. So known existing problem with a known existing solution that was quote unquote better and integrated with the rest of the meta shit. Everybody checked it out and everybody went away. Why? Here's the aha. Problems Create categories. And you either have to solve a new problem. Or Reframe name and claim an existing problem in a, and I'm going to use these words on purpose, very different way And if you reframe the existing problem such that people see it in a different way. That's when they'll be open to a new solution. But the mistake is the emphasis is on the wrong syllable. The emphasis is on the product because we live in a world where just like The availability of oxygen”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah Now why did that happen? Why did one of the richest people in the history of the world who's potentially one of the smartest people in the history of entrepreneurship and tech fail so miserably when the entire world said he was going to kill quote unquote Twitter and after the initial quote success of threads? Everybody said that's exactly what was going to happen. And now all those experts are surprisingly quiet. The legendary Kevin Maney said that category design is a new lens on business, and that It's a different lens. It sits next to the product lens. It sits next to the competition lens. But it is equally important. So here's what happened with threads. They attacked an existing, well known, well-understood, incredibly well-defined problem.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so how many billion person apps have there been in history of apps? Legendary brand. Greatest distribution advantage in history What happened? It's gone. I mean, it's still there. Nobody's there”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, massive distribution, incredible, easy up and on, incredible. Free product, not even freemium. Free Awesome. And Facebook meta. You tell me one of the ten most powerful brands in tech?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is a side note, but when somebody says something in Silicon Valley that enough people think, oh, yes, that's smart. Just parroted it. They don't actually think about it. So there's a current thinking in Silicon Valley, and this was real loud as threads was coming out. This was the reason why threads was the Twitter killer You need, Lenny, brand and distribution. That's what you need, especially distribution. Well, I would assert to you that threads had the greatest distribution advantage of any new piece of software ever launched. If there's another one that has a greater distribution advantage, I'd like to know what it is.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so let's take a very current example threads. We just wrote about this. When threads came out And I can show you all the headlines if you want to see them. New York Times, never mind tech crime, all these places, Twitter killer, Twitter killer, Twitter killer, Twitter killer, right? And at the time, there's all this discussion of Musk and Zuck having a UFC cage fight and so there's all this build up into the launch of threads. And there's all this supposed Twitter hate. And everyone, oh, quote unquote, everybody's leaving Twitter. So threads comes out Happens Threads surpass GPT as the fastest growing app ever. Oh, now the headlines Lenny are coming. This is it. Zucks a genius. It's incredible. And oh, by the way, this sits inside one of the newer Stupid axioms in Silicon Valley.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That doesn't work. Microsoft proved it over 30 years ago. And we can talk about that if you want. So you either stay in your niche and get diminished over time, or you up level. And you go to play for the whole enchilada. The problem is for them and all the others in the space who didn't do that. They were to do it today well over a year after Clary did they're just a Clari copyc And so basically you either go compete with Clarity for who can be the category king, or you stay in your niche and get diminished over time. And if you're going to go compete with the company that is laying down the category design that's picking up the most momentum for the overall market, you better know how to do. A sort of fifth Dan Black belt category wars.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so you have to continuously expand the vision for the category and continuously build on that. And if you don't and somebody else frames claims and names the bigger agenda As has been the case, and look, I'm biased, as has been the case with Clary. Clarry's crushing everybody in this space right now. And The gongs and all the other players are now in this horrible position. Which is they basically only have two choices. One, they can stay in their niche, which is what most players do, and they argue best to breed. Oh, well, we're the best revenue carbodingulator, and you could go by an end-to-end revenue platform. But if you do that, you won't get the best functionality in the carbodingulator space. So buy our revenue carbidingulator.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The mistake that Gong made, as well as the vast majority of others in that space, is they stayed in their micro niche. So the strategy in the beginning that was genius and exactly what you should do as a startup. All of a sudden, when they didn't expand and set the agenda, the design for the big category. They got fucked Because now they're niched. And there's a big learning in this Lenny, which is if you're a company that's already up and running and you're winning, and let's say you're becoming the category queen in your space. Every entrepreneur, every CEO faces fascinating moment if they become successful in the first five years or so, which is they realize their biggest barrier to growth going forward is their current category. Because you could only be as big and successful as your market category.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In all new mega categories, they start like this, this is exactly what happened in CRM. I could walk you through the history if it matters. But there were companies in support, there were companies in help desk, there were companies in sales, there were companies in marketing, and there were a whole bunch of sub niches underneath that. There was a point in time in the Salesforce automation category when that was a standalone category that some of the hottest companies in that category were sales configurator companies further down niche. And so as these mega spaces emerge over time, One company can fulfill the needs of a customer. And so there's all these niches.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the interesting thing that Gong did, very smart, was as RevOps started to emerge, they were smart enough to realize that Rev was going to be a big new important space, that CRM didn't actually do it, that ERP didn't actually do it, BI didn't actually do it. And so there was this sort of emerging set of thinking around we need a different approach to revenue. They were smart enough to realize that if they went for the whole enchilada, it's not credible from a startup that you're going to go build, that you're going to show up and say, we have a suite that's equivalent to that of SAP just for this other area. So they picked off a very tight part of a broader emerging category, and they executed incredibly. And they dominated that part Here's the mistake they made.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I know the space very, very well. And they did something incredibly smart so that they were a little later in the space than some others. And so there were a whole bunch of companies in today which you could broadly refer to as the revenue space, right? In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm familiar with Clary. I'm good friends with Andy. I know the team. I've done some work with them. All disclosure. Clary and a handful of others in the beginning started to create the space that ultimately became Rev Ops.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You'll see ads and/or content that say here are three competitors and a list of features and there'll be 25 features. And then there's us and there'll be 125 features. And they're actively inviting comparison. You even hear it in ads. If you listen to what marketers say, Lenny, we say the stupidest shit don't take our work for it. Anyway, and so the legendary innovators over time, they did not compare their innovation to the past. They broke and took new ground. They wanted to be irreplaceable. They wanted to be so much value in the minds of That not only were the switching costs horrible, switched to what?”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which then leads to their definition of a solution set. The company that does that at any kind of scale wins. And so the number one question for any entrepreneur or any creator at all is, do I want to compete for 24% of an existing market category? Or do I want to create my own where if I can execute, I will earn two-thirds of the economics? That's the decision that most entrepreneurs make that they don't know that they made. And at its heart, category design is about the most radical kind of differentiation. So most companies actively seek comparison. You go to many software companies' website right now on their homepage. You'll see a Gartner report or a Forrester report on their homepage.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Focus on the problem, not just the solution. So they say obsessed with the problem. And then they ask a different question, which is, how do I wash, quote unquote, my hands in the absence of water? And of course, the answer to that question is a new category called hand sanitizer and the dominant brand, of course, is Purell. And so the aha here is the company that designs the space and gets it to tip its scale. And when I say designs the space, what I mean is specifically gets a meaningful percentage of the world to agree with their definition of a problem set.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In most restaurants, most corporate bathrooms, most airport bathrooms, if you start paying attention, you'll see the Gojo logo on the squeezy thing that you pull when you go to get the soap. So, unlike most innovators and entrepreneurs who get obsessed with the solution, and I understand why, we all love our shit, we all love our product. If you want to talk to me about our shit, I want to talk all about it. We could do a 12-hour deep dive on all your content and how you built the newsletter, right? And you'd love it. It'd be great. We all do. Because if you're a creator of any kind, entrepreneur, innovator of any kind, you love the thing you're creating, of course. However, Gojo.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This was 80 plus years ago. The company, by the way, is called Gojo Industries. Gojo. And Gojo is a portmanteau putting their two names together. I think it was maybe it was Gloria and Joseph. I'd have to double check the husband and wife teams email. Excuse me. But the company's called Gojo Industries. And I think the granddaughter runs it today, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway. So the gal wife said, this bar soap is disgusting. It's full of crapola. It's hairy. It's full of man nastiness. So The solution to washing your hands called a bar of soap. Was a disgusting, inappropriate solution for her So she reimagined the problem not as, how do I wash my hands, but as how do I wash my hands without a disgusting bar soap and Gojo Industries created a whole new category called liquid soap.”
2023-09-17 · Lenny's Podcast · How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source