Congratulations to Play Bigger • a podium performance at the inaugural ClubSwan28 Nations League USA regatta.
Class President Al Ramadan and his team of Play Bigger showcased an impressive display of talent and teamwork to earn second place in Pensacola, Florida, USA 🇺🇸
What a momentous way to begin this new chapter for ClubSwan in the United States of America!
#clubswan #clubswanracing #clubswan28 #nautorswan
📸 @hannahleenoll
Last week we had the privilege of running our 2nd annual workshop at the One Mind Accelerator.
Huge thank you to Pushkar Joshi, PhD and the entire @onemindorg team. They are world class at finding some of the most transformative, and certainly category-defining early-stage founders.
One Mind’s mission is deeply important: accelerating breakthrough science and innovation to radically improve how we understand and treat brain health. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent frontier.
Spending a few hours with this year’s cohort was equal parts humbling and energizing. So many bold approaches. So many founders willing to question assumptions and rethink what’s possible.
Encouraging to see this level of innovation pointed at problems that truly matter. Grateful for the partnership.
#playingbigger #founders #innovation #mentalhealth
If you spend time with @matsudajanet , you know she prefers to take the stairs…
getting somewhere and getting some exercise is a two-fer.
Same with category design.
The easy path is rarely the one that gets you the best outcome.
Breakthrough comes from the climb.
wrestling with the problem, turning it over from every angle, iterating, and talking it through until the truth snaps into focus.
The stairs take longer.
They also get you to a different outcome.
Category design is often mistaken for naming or messaging.
That’s just the first flight.
Category design requires evolving the solution so it truly solves the problem and delivers breakthroughs for customers.
It’s shaping the whole system—product, partners, pricing, and packaging..
And none of it works without building belief:
first inside the company, then in the market—over time, with consistency.
It’s a long climb.
But that’s how categories are built—and how real results show up.
Many founders describe their product through features, workflows, and use cases. That feels logical, but it misses the lever that actually creates pull.
In this clip, Jason Wellcome breaks down a sharper way to think about growth. Markets form around problems, not features. The real work is identifying the higher-order problem that unifies all the pain points you see when you're in the weeds.
When you articulate that problem clearly, something interesting happens.
People recognize themselves in it. They feel seen. They feel oriented. And behavior shifts.
Jason explains that when you evangelize the problem, people naturally turn to you for the solution. Not because you pitched it harder or pounded your chest saying you were the best, but because you reframed how they see the world. Categories emerge when someone names a problem that hasn’t been fully understood yet, or one people didn’t realize they were experiencing or could solve.
This is why positioning that starts with “what we do” often stalls, while positioning that starts with “here’s the problem we believe matters” creates momentum. Belief forms before demand. Trust forms before evaluation.
If you want people to lean in and say, “Okay, now tell me about your product,” start by getting ruthless about the problem you stand for.
The full episode of Growth Department with Jason is out now!
Be sure to follow Jason and the Play Bigger team (they have a great newsletter and lots of resources on their website).
💻 Another city, another POV day! @al_ramadan_sc@jwellcome@matsudajanet are helping a client unlock the Point of View for their company today…nailing this part of the process is critical in category design, and we are excited to see where this takes them…
#categorydesign
Are you falling into the positioning trap?
Positioning often gets revisited in moments of financial pressure—fundraises, IPO prep, board scrutiny.
But somewhere along the way, positioning drifted—from owning a single, decisive idea in the customer’s mind to jockeying for attention inside an existing market.
That kind of “update” rarely delivers the valuation teams are hoping for. It optimizes perception without changing the game.
We break down this shift—and why it quietly limits growth—in the Emerging Market Trap Primer.
Not ready for the Primer? Read our short blog on The Fallacy of Positioning from Play Bigger via our #linkinbio👆
Our team is kicking off 2026 with a road trip to DC with @jwellcome and @matsudajanet ✈️ We see it again and again: real clarity on the problem, and who has it, doesn’t just shape the solution story, it defines what must actually be built. 🎯 Play Bigger #categorydesign
✨ New year, same question: will 2026 be incremental—or will it be a breakthrough?
Breakthrough growth doesn’t come from better execution inside old markets. It comes from designing the category and creating the new market you’re meant to lead.
How do you do that? We will be sharing examples of market creation throughout 2026 in our newsletter. Sign up now. #CategoryDesign
If you haven’t read The Existing Market Trap yet (authored by @al_ramadan_sc , @marycos_grice , @jwellcome , and @lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴☠️), you are missing out! It was just named one of the Top 25 Books of 2025 by #DisruptTV and we couldn’t be more appreciative.
‘Tis the season to gift these to your favorite Founder, Entrepreneur, or CMO. We can’t wait to see what you build in 2026!
🎤 Yesterday Al Ramadan had the pleasure of talking with ~30 climate tech founders from Italy visiting San Francisco.
What stood out wasn’t their technology. It was their conviction.
That’s the real work of climate tech — creating new categories the world can understand, adopt, and rally around.
Huge thanks to INNOVIT - Italian Innovation and Culture Hub and Diane Schrader from TheNewClimate, Inc for convening such a thoughtful, committed group of founders.
Swipe to see some highlights from the event…
The holiday’s came early...use the long weekend of shopping to Play Bigger. Reading these two books (or gifting them to your favorite founder) can spark big thinking 🚀 visit our #linkinbio or Amazon to shop books
📉The Existential Decline
When the category you created stops creating demand. “We’re still the leader. But the market’s not listening anymore.” What do you do?
@al_ramadan_sc shares insight into how to escape Sin #13 from the Exisiting Market Trap…
#linkinbio
