A unique skill we need as indie hackers: category design

I've been following Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole for some time now. They have a program where you can learn how to become an online writer.

One of the things they emphasise is the goal to create your own category.

Enter a market with competition and you're just one of the many.

Enter new markets and you dominate from the beginning.

That's why they focus on creating new categories so you'll be the first and market leader.

I've been trying to figure this out for my own startup backlink.nl but couldn't think of something new yet.

When this occurs I try to come up with as many examples as possible from existing companies.

So far, I've been trying to crack the code for Tesla. One of the reasons Tesla became so popular is due to the following.

The best marketers play our reptile brain (RP). These are some of the needs of the RP:

1. Conserve energy
2. Obtain food
3. Find love & reproduce
4. Connect & bond with others
5. Win social acceptance & approval
6. Reduce uncertainty & anxiety
7. Achieve status & prestige

If I look at what made Tesla so special it was because of 2 things. They made electric cars a high-end product instead of a lousy Toyota Prius.

Furthermore, we all know that one day gas cars will stop being sold. We know there's a deadline. Critical events like a deadline are very powerful with sales.

So with all this in mind I came up with the following formula:

Unique category = (need of the reptile brain) + (critical event)

Add a different business model to it and you have a special sauce. Here on indie hackers most people think in terms of subscriptions but there are so much more ways to monetize an app. Some examples:

1. Pay per usage (AWS)
2. Commission based. (Stripe and backlink.nl are an example of this)
3. Lifetime deal. Even with a lifetime deal, you can still generate recurring revenue. If you want to know how, drop a comment since it's outside the goal of this post.
4. Freemium. Partially free, partially premium. (Zapier, Notion)
5. Marketplace. In this case, you have 2 target audiences. Sellers and buyers. (Vinted, Airbnb)

Industries are often tied up to the same business models. The most innovative concepts bill their customer differently. Think about what was the norm before Spotify, AWS, Medium. So then we end up with the following:

Unique concept = (need of the reptile brain) + (critical event) + (business model)

I'm still figuring out what this could be for my business.

Let's try to add as many examples in this post as an inspiration for each other🔥