Arrrrr! 🏴☠️ Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Category Pirates. Each week, we share radically different ideas to help you design new and different categories. For more: Dive into an audiobook | Listen to a category design jam session | Enroll in the free Strategy Sprint email course
Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,
Your next legendary business collaborator might already be in your circle.
And you just haven’t realized it yet.
Last week, we released the Find Your Business Bandmates mini-book and a 100-point scorecard to help you evaluate a potential business collaborator. The response? One pirate offered us their firstborn child. (We politely declined.)
Others pushed back: "You can't reduce magical partnerships to numbers!"
Here's the thing:
We're not trying to help you FIND the perfect partner. We're trying to help you RECOGNIZE when they're already there.
Legendary partnerships are (often) serendipitous. They don’t give a damn about your plans and can show up when you're not looking. And without the right lens, you’ll miss them completely.
Would you recognize a legendary collaborator if they didn't match your "ideal partner" checklist?
Would you spot chemistry if it came wrapped in an unexpected package?
Would you notice your perfect complement if they were your total opposite?
In this week's Pirate Jam Session, we dive into why the most powerful business partnerships often hide in plain sight. We'll share why a University of Chicago spreadsheet wizard and a Spinal Tap-quoting dropout might actually be the perfect match. (Spoiler: They were.)
Here’s what we jam on:
The dangerous trap of looking for partners who are "just like you"
How to know when serendipity is trying to tell you something
A framework for recognizing potential legendary collaborators (before they pass you by)
Most importantly, you'll learn why a person who makes absolutely no sense on paper might be exactly who you need. (If Pirate Eddie and Pirate Christopher had used traditional partner-matching criteria, Category Pirates wouldn't exist!)
Tune into this week's Jam Session to discover what might be right in front of you.
Key timestamps:
[1:20] – Why you can't scorecard your way to serendipity, but you can use it to identify when something serendipitous is happening
[9:05] – The legacy business media's biggest lie about entrepreneurs
[13:17] – Why core values match matters more than any skill or experience
[22:01] – How traditional partner-matching ruins legendary possibilities
[25:42] – The give a f*ck approach to long-term business relationships
For more, read Find Your Business Bandmates or listen to the audiobook.
Arrrrrr,
Category Pirates 🏴☠️
P.S. - Are you enjoying these Jam Session videos?
We love jamming with each other — but we want to know if you find these sessions helpful or valuable. Let us know your thoughts (and why) in a comment!
