Eddie Would Grow

Category Pirates

"Like Harvard Business Review. But for Pirates."

By Christopher Lochhead and Eddie Yoon

A newsletter so hefty it became a series of "mini books." Free subscribers receive snippets; paying subscribers receive each mini-book in full digital form, delivered straight to their email inbox.

  • 300+ mini-books written on Substack.
  • One of the Top 5 most-read paid business newsletters on Substack.
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Snow Leopard, a Category Pirates book, cover
Creator Capitalist, a Category Pirates book, cover

What is Category Pirates?

Category Pirates is the authority on Category Creation and Category Design.

We write for the radically different — those who want to see, design, and claim the future.

Our content consists of a unique idea, a framework for new thinking, a core story to give the framework context, and data to back it up. This chock-full newsletter is then formatted into a digital "mini-book."

Topics include

  • How to create new categories and redesign old ones.
  • Motivational examples of the power of creating and investing in category creators such as Tesla, Netflix, Amazon, and Airbnb.
  • Case studies for how successful companies have created and/or redesigned existing categories (and where other companies have gone wrong).

Frameworks

How pirates think

  • The Magic Triangle

    How do you build a legendary business? You must innovate on all 3 sides — product design, company design, category design. Contrary to popular belief, the best product does not always win.

  • The Category Design Scorecard

    Companies that create new categories capture 76% of the market. The Category Design Scorecard helps you determine whether you are truly creating a new category, or unknowingly competing in someone else's.

  • Superconsumers

    "Supers" spend 30% to 70% more than your other customers. To discover your next breakthrough category opportunity, find your superconsumers, build your data flywheel, and the answers will reveal themselves.

Join the crew

Three ways in

Category Design Academy

$10,000

Enrolling now — applications close September 30.

Five months, live with Christopher Lochhead and Eddie. Runs once a year -- cohorts sell out.

Learn more →

Founding tier

$375/year

The Pirate Eddie Bot -- trained on the complete Category Pirates library -- plus every book and audiobook.

Learn more →

Substack

$20/month

Every mini-book Category Pirates publishes, delivered straight to your inbox.

Learn more →
Books at categorypirates.com →Books on Amazon →

The library

The Category Pirates library

95 titles and counting.

  • Snow Leopard
  • Become Known For A Niche You Own
  • The 22 Laws of Category Design
  • A Marketer's Guide To Category Design
  • The Category Design Toolkit
  • The Content Pyramid
  • The Power Of A Point Of View
  • How To Write A Top 1% Business Newsletter
  • The Big Brand Lie
  • No Ocean Strategy
  • How To Build Your First (Crazy Profitable) Business As A Teenager: 18 Radical Ideas For 18-Year
  • DAM The Demand
  • A Super Of 1 Is A Super Of 9
  • The Lightning Strike Strategy: How To Plan An Annual Marketing Strategy That Solidifies Your Le
  • Position Yourself Or Be Positioned
  • Creator Capitalist
  • Paid To Create
  • Category Science 101
  • The Big Product Lie
  • The 8 Category Levers: How To Build A Massive, Pacific Ocean-Sized Differentiation Moat
  • How To Become A Top 444 Author
  • Content-Free Marketing
  • The Art Of Fresh Thinking
  • The "Me" Disease
  • The Breakthrough Game
  • How To Make Money In A Recession
  • Crossing The Chasm With Category Science
  • The Category Design Scorecard
  • How To Achieve Your Own Personal IPO
  • Radical M&A Strategy
  • Living Your Category POV
  • The Meta Problem
  • The Next 10 Years For Netflix
  • Category Superpower
  • The B2B Tech Marketer’s Guide To Category Design
  • The 2-4-8 Sales Strategy Framework
  • One-Sentence Strategy
  • Radical Agency
  • Reputation Capital
  • Lightning Strike Marketing
  • The Magic Triangle
  • Direct To Creator
  • Writer Business Models
  • Rethinking Black Friday
  • Solving for Churn
  • Intellectual Capital
  • The “Better” Trap
  • A New Category Of Human
  • How To Create A Category As A Small “e” Entrepreneur
  • Missionaries vs Mercenaries
  • The Big Category Lie
  • How To Have A Legendary Career
  • Category Design 101
  • The Digital Education Crisis
  • How To Reframe The Problem & Win
  • The “No-Sell” Sell
  • The Category King Of Crypto
  • The Mentor Myth
  • The Annual Strategy Planning Trap
  • The Power of Outcomes
  • Radical Resilience
  • A Beginner's Guide To Category Design
  • The 3 Marketing Metrics To Rule Them All [Part 1, 2 & 3]
  • The 8 Category Levers: How To Build a Massive, Pacific Ocean-Sized Differentiation Moat
  • The Lightning Strike Strategy: 5 Practical & Tactical Elements Of A Memorable Marketing Event
  • How To Hire A Strategy Advisor
  • The Innovator's Delusion
  • Find Your Business Bandmates
  • Living In The Future
  • Permission To Play
  • Relationship Capital
  • The Big Retirement Lie
  • A Pirate's Guide To A Legendary IPO
  • Parenting Like A VC
  • Tesla Superconsumers Are Making Millions
  • The Digital American Dream
  • Category Violence
  • Accelerate Your Leadership Position
  • Investing Through A Category Lens
  • The Marketing Funnel Funeral
  • NFTs And A New Category Of Art
  • The Christmas Gift Growth Strategy
  • The “Ism Schism”
  • Dr. Ayelet Fishbach
  • Martin Cooper
  • Category Design For Social Change
  • Anticipating The Roaring 2020s
  • Engineering Exponential Moments
  • Dying-From-Home
  • The Value Of Your Value
  • The Art Of Critical Reading [Part 1 & 2]
  • The Problem Is Your Problem
  • The Big Strategy Lie
  • Runway, Not Retirement
  • How To Build Your First (Crazy Profitable) Business As A Teenager: The AI Sequel: Another 18 wa
Browse them all on Amazon

The co-founders

Meet the pirate co-founders

  • Christopher Lochhead

    A 3x CMO, #1 Apple business podcaster, and #1 Amazon marketing author. His first book, Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets, has been called "the bible of category design" and is in the top 1% of business books.

    Learn more →

  • Eddie Yoon

    Has written more on category creation and design than any person living or dead for the Harvard Business Review. He is the author of the breakthrough bestseller Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth. He also runs a think tank and advisory firm on growth strategy, called Eddie Would Grow.

    Learn more →

“If you want to know how to change the world, read Category Pirates. You don't win championships by just being normal.”

Bill Walton

Bill Walton

NBA Hall of Fame Legend and Fellow Pirate

Read like a pirate

Free subscribers receive snippets; paying subscribers receive each mini-book in full.

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