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Building Categories &
Rebranding for Scale

Barbra Gago
CMO & Category Builder
(Miro, Greenhouse, CultureAmp)
2025
The Core

What is a
Product Category?

FEATURESPAINBUDGETCATEGORY
  • Set of products solving a specific pain point
  • Buyers have budget allocated for it
  • Featured on G2, Software Advice, review sites
  • It becomes your positioning headline
  • Either broad (all-in-one) or narrow (best-in-class)
The DefinitionA category is how customers describe their problem and where they've allocated budget, not how you wish they'd describe it.
Visual Collab. vs. ATS

When to Build vs. When to Abandon a New Category

✓ Miro: Visual Collaboration

No existing budget. Disruptive product that didn't exist. People called it different things. Vision: become something every company needs.

✗ Greenhouse: Recruiting Optimization

Budget already existed. ATS category was hated but entrenched. Customers called it ATS no matter what. Abandoned the new category play.

"At the end of the day, the budget that customers had and the way customers talked about what we did, no matter what we called it, was applicant tracking. We abandoned that process."
  • Miro lesson: When market is shifting, vision can pull customers toward new category
  • Greenhouse lesson: Can't fight entrenched budget allocation and customer language
  • The real insight: Instead of creating new category, we elevated the whole ATS category
Building a New Category

The Full Investment Required

  • Analyst validation: Get on G2, Gartner, Software Advice as official category
  • Thought leadership: Why this category? Unique value props? What pain points?
  • Heavy content: Educate the market that this category exists and why to budget for it
  • The scope question: Is the current category too small for where we want to go?
  • Timing: Market inflection points (COVID shift to remote work, social enterprise wave, etc.)
Miro's approach

Online whiteboard was too small. Visual collaboration wasn't a budget category yet, but the product potential was massive. Built the vision, and the market followed.

The middle path

You don't have to choose all or nothing. Sell as performance management (budget exists) while slowly building "employee progression" as the future category.

Rebranding

When & How to
Rebrand

  • Do it early, once you have product-market fit but before you scale
  • Before you invest too much in an old brand
  • Before too many customers are deeply attached
  • Keep essence of old brand if it's loved (Miro kept the yellow Post-it from RealtimeBoard)
  • Rebrand when the name no longer serves the vision
The RealtimeBoard storyName was so literal and small it couldn't support the product's actual potential. The founders were open because the business was ready to scale, sooner the better.
Contrarian Moves

Category & Brand Myths

✗Every startup should create a new categoryINSTEAD →✓ Only when market inflections demand it. It's tied to tech waves and shifts, not to individual company ambition.
✗No competition = successINSTEAD →✓ You don't have a category until there's competition. Multiple players validate it exists.
✗Rebranding is too risky for customersINSTEAD →✓ Rebranding is riskier when you wait. Do it early before you build attachment to the old name.
✗You must pick: new category OR existing budgetINSTEAD →✓ You can do both. Sell into existing category while building the future one long-tail.
Based on Barbra Gago's episode on Lenny's Podcast. All ideas on this page are from the episode.Watch on YouTubeFollow @barbragago on X
GO DEEPER IN THE EPISODE
05:06 Barbra’s startup06:07 Category creation vs. winning in existing categories07:49 What is an applicant tracking system, and why have they been problematic?09:57 What is a product category?13:06 Examples of product categories14:05 Greenhouse as an example of failed category creation16:46 How Miro successfully created a new category18:37 Utilizing user feedback21:15 The mechanics of category creation21:22 How to advocate for your new category with directory sites25:53 The middle ground between new and existing categories29:37 When is it time to rebrand?38:51 How to create a lasting, global brand41:18 How values inform brands43:13 Insights into developing company values44:24 The elements of a brand46:37 What is opinionated software?47:57 The benefits of opinionated software, and why Barbra’s software is opinionated51:23 Lightning round
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