Category Thinkers

In this podcast episode, Hywel Carver, CEO of Skiller Whale, shares his company's category design journey after attending a workshop by Category Design Advisors, sponsored by Concept Ventures. He discusses the challenges they faced in defining their offering and how the workshop, along with the book "Play Bigger," helped them create a new category called "Live Team Coaching." The process involved the entire senior leadership team and emphasized the importance of alignment and internal collaboration. Carver also touches on the significance of humor in their brand identity, the role of storytelling in building a category, and their long-term vision of reskilling knowledge workers. The episode highlights the iterative nature of category strategy development and the value of external feedback in refining a company's approach. Hosts Mike “Damp” Damphousse and Kevin Maney.This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.liveFlag & Frontier

Commercial real estate isn’t usually a place that is associated with technological innovation, neither is the HVAC industry, but that makes it ripe for category design. Meet Frederik Hendriksen, the founder of Rensair. Explore their groundbreaking smart ventilation system, seamlessly integrating hardware and software to optimize energy efficiency and indoor air quality in commercial buildings. Triggered by the massive shift in context during Covid, Rensair has pushed to transform their category.  Beyond offices, envision its potential applications in homes and transportation. Witness them forging a new category from an existing one in building engineering with a strong focus on sustainability. Hosts Mike “Damp” Damphousse and Kevin Maney unpack the transition of an existing category with Rensair.This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.liveFlag & Frontier

In this episode, John Rougeux interviews Lauren Pufpaf, the President, COO, and co-founder of Feed Media Group. Lauren’s company was founded on the insight that apps need the right music experience to fully engage users. But as the company grew, they learned that they weren’t going after a big enough problem. Listen in to learn how Lauren and her team used category design to shift their thinking.This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.liveFlag & Frontier

A.I. has created a massive shift in context, and with that comes massive opportunities for category designers, but it also means a flood of competitors into the same space.Brian Schiff had capitalized on this shift, focusing on leveraging A.I. to take customer support from a cost center to a profit center, and is now using category design to avoid commoditization as the lookalikes show up in his space.This conversation is moderated by the founders of Category Thinkers, John Rougeux and Mike "Damp" Damphousse.This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.liveFlag & Frontier

Al Ramadan is the CEO of Play Bigger, LLC and one of the co-authors of “Play Bigger,” and a dedicated board member of Save The Waves Coalition. In this replay of our live AMA event, we’ll dive deep into the art of category design. Discover how shifts in context—ranging from environmental changes to global events like pandemics, wars, or financial crises—can spark innovative solutions and new categories. We’ll unpack how category designers are fortunate to have a skill that extends beyond startups to nonprofits, global warming, public companies, and more.This conversation is moderated by the founders of Category Thinkers, Pablo Gonzalez, John Rougeux, and Mike "Damp" Damphousse.This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.liveFlag and Frontier

In this episode, we interview Rebecca Kirstein Resch, the founder and CEO at inqli. Rebecca’s company is dedicated to helping workplace teams tap into the power of ‘tacit knowledge.’ She’s been using category design as a framework for uncovering new problems and now has a clear story about why a new type of solution called ‘social knowledge sharing’ needs to exist. Listen in to hear the insights Rebecca has unlocked through her founder’s journey and how she’s thinking about the future. This conversation is moderated by the founders of Category Thinkers, John Rougeux and Mike "Damp" Damphousse.  This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.live

In this episode, Nick Tippmann, former CMO of medtech company Greenlight Guru, joins Pablo, Damp, and John to break down his journey as a marketer turned investor. Nick shares why vertical SaaS companies should think like category designers and how he evaluates the category potential of early-stage startups.  We discuss:How Greenlight Guru tipped from tool to platform to category, Why he believes vertical SaaS is fertile ground for category designers, How he evaluates the category potential of early stage startups as an investor.This conversation is moderated by the founders of Category Thinkers, Pablo Gonzalez, John Rougeux, and Mike "Damp" Damphousse.This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.live

In this episode, we’re joined by Dan Gottlieb, a Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. Dan shares his take on how analysts like him define categories and when to establish a new one. He also unpacks how startups can stand out in crowded categories by defining their “critical capabilities” and shares how and when startups should educate analysts like him about their solutions. This episode was hosted by John Rougeux and Mike "Damp" Damphousse, and sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.liveFlag & Frontier

Sangram Vajre is one of the best-known category designers in B2B SaaS, with community and events being critical parts of his playbook. Not only did Sangram bring the account-based marketing category to life during his time at Terminus, but he's also used the same playbook to launch a successful paid community (Peak), and now a service business (GTM Partners). In this recording of our life AMA with Sangram, you’ll learn how community and events can help drive your category strategy.We touch on topics like:Sangram’s playbook for events that turn communities into content to design a categoryWhy it’s not too late to build a category and community in your spaceThe mindset and team it takes to pull these feats offThis conversation is moderated by the founders of Category Thinkers, Pablo Gonzalez, John Rougeux, and Mike "Damp" Damphousse.This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.live

In this episode, Brad Luttrell joins us to talk through how he discovered category design a year and a half ago, why it was the strategy Holler Commerce needed to adopt, and what he has done to design social commerce as a service category ever since. He speaks with our co-founder, John Rougeux and Damp, about: Whether category design is a choice or a need, and whyHow he rethought his product strategy with a category lensWhat he is doing to build a moat by being radically differentThis episode was hosted by John Rougeux and Mike "Damp" Damphousse.‍This episode is sponsored by:Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.live