84 - What I've Learned From Category Designing 50+ Startups (Josh Lowman, Founder and CCO at Gold Front)

Welcome back! 

As you may have heard, I'm intrigued by category design. I've had both Christopher Lochhead and Andy Raskin on the show to chat more on the topic, and those are actually some of the more popular episodes on the podcast. 

Josh Lowman helps startups (like Robinhood, Newsela, Uber, Bizzabo, and Clari) create and own their category. I wanted to bring Josh onto the show and dig into exactly HOW he helps startups design categories and learn about some specific examples.

Josh is Founder and CCO at Gold Front, a category design studio based in San Francisco and LA. He's also the host of the Category First podcast.

Here's what we hit on:

What does category creation mean to you (HINT: it's a whole company strategy);

Exactly how you’ve helped different brands like Robinhood, Newsela, Uber, Bizzabo and Clari with category design. Where do you start? What does that process look like (HINT: everyone has a different context, but in common is to disrupt the old way of doing things);

Why the CEO collaboration is key;

What are the pitfalls or watch-outs if you’re a startup planning to create and own a category;

How does timing play into successful category creation? What needs to click out there in the world for this to work;

Can everyone be a category creator (HINT: we're just keeping people honest. As a startup you're not telling your investors that you have something incrementally better);

How did you bring category creation into Gold Front’s business strategy;

What are some goals you want to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022.

You can reach Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshlowman/

Find out more about Gold Front: https://www.goldfront.com/

Check out the Category First podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/category-first/id1601824968

For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).

You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!