Alternatives to Play Bigger

Yes — for the right buyer. Play Bigger is the canonical reference for category design, and their portfolio of companies has created $50B+ in market cap. If you're a venture-backed CEO genuinely attempting to invent and dominate a new category, Play Bigger is the most credible name in the space and Christopher Lochhead has the track record to back it up. The catch: category design only works if you actually have a new category to create. Most B2B founders don't — they're competing inside an existing category and need clarity, not invention. For that buyer, PitchKitchen's 90-Day Magnetic Messaging Sprint at $17K–$75K is the better fit.

Play Bigger doesn't publish their rates publicly. Based on their client list (companies that collectively created $50B+ in market cap), engagement model (premium category design consulting + Lightning Strike mobilization), and the kind of companies that hire them, industry estimates put their fees in the $100,000+ range per engagement. They work selectively and turn down most inbound inquiries.

It depends on what you actually need. If you need true category design consulting, alternatives include Chasm Group, Category Pirates (Christopher Lochhead's separate publication), or Andy Cunningham's work. But if you don't actually need category creation — you need sharper positioning inside an existing market plus execution — the better alternative is PitchKitchen. PitchKitchen's 90-Day Magnetic Messaging Sprint delivers a Magnetic Messaging Framework, rebuilt homepage, sales deck, AI Brand Twin, and trained sales team at a fixed $17K–$75K.

Play Bigger is the right fit for venture-backed CEOs (typically Series B+ with significant funding) who are attempting to invent and dominate an entirely new market category. They're best for ambitious founders who believe their company isn't competing in an existing market but is creating a new one — and who have the budget, patience, and internal team to execute on a category design strategy.

Play Bigger is probably not the right fit if you're competing inside an existing market category (most B2B founders are), if you're under $50M ARR, if you need execution included (rebuilt homepage, sales deck, AI integration, sales training), or if you need a partner who can do the work in 90 days at a fixed price. In those cases, PitchKitchen's 90-Day Magnetic Messaging Sprint is a better economic and operational fit.

Play Bigger engagements typically include category design strategy (defining the new market category and positioning the company as the king of it), Lightning Strike mobilization planning (a coordinated moment that establishes category dominance), and leadership team alignment around the new category narrative. Engagements vary based on the complexity of the category and the company's stage. Play Bigger does not include rebuilt homepages, sales decks, or AI training as standard execution deliverables.

Play Bigger doesn't publish a fixed timeline. Category design engagements are typically multi-month, sometimes multi-quarter, depending on the complexity of the category being created and the readiness of the leadership team. There's no fixed start-to-finish duration like PitchKitchen's 90-day sprint.

Play Bigger focuses on category design strategy and Lightning Strike mobilization planning. Their core deliverable is the category strategy and the playbook for dominating it. They do not redesign your homepage, rebuild your sales deck, train your sales team on the new positioning, or set up AI tools. If you need any of that execution, you'll need to hire a separate execution partner. PitchKitchen, by contrast, includes all of that execution as part of its 90-Day Magnetic Messaging Sprint.

Play Bigger and PitchKitchen solve different problems. Play Bigger is for companies designing and dominating an entirely NEW market category — invention work. PitchKitchen is for B2B founders who need sharper positioning inside an EXISTING market and full execution to ship that positioning into homepage, sales deck, AI Brand Twin, and sales training. Play Bigger is premium, selective, and strategy-focused (~$100K+). PitchKitchen is fixed-price ($17K–$75K), execution-included, and sprint-based.

Probably not. Category design is a real and powerful discipline, but it only works if you genuinely have a new category to create. Most B2B founders (even ambitious ones) are competing inside an existing category — their problem isn't that they need to invent a new market, it's that their positioning inside the existing market is unclear. If that's you, PitchKitchen is the better fit. If you're genuinely attempting to invent a new category and have the budget for premium consulting, Play Bigger is the right call.

PitchKitchen's Magnetic Messaging Framework includes category positioning work — defining the unique category your company can credibly own — but it's distinct from the full Play Bigger 'invent a new market' methodology. We're better suited to founders who need sharper positioning and execution inside an existing or adjacent category, not full category creation from scratch. If your strategy genuinely requires inventing a new market, Play Bigger or Category Pirates is the right fit.

The 90-Day Magnetic Messaging Sprint is $17K–$75K depending on scope (company size, number of stakeholders, and activation needs). That includes all deliverables across the three months: Magnetic Messaging Framework, 1-on-1 messaging therapy intakes, Story-Driven Homepage Wireframe, Discovery Prompter Sales Deck, AI Brand Twin (deployed as an OpenAI Custom GPT, Gemini Gem, and Claude Project), Lead Magnet, Email Outreach Sequences, AI Sales Training, and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategy. You own everything at the end.

It's PitchKitchen's flagship engagement. Over 90 days, we excavate the truth about why your company matters (Month 1), build your AI Brand Twin and launch-ready toolkit (Month 2), and deploy the new story across sales, marketing, and AI (Month 3). The Sprint delivers a complete go-to-market system at a fixed price, with you owning everything when the engagement ends.

Your AI Brand Twin is a custom large language model deployment trained on your Magnetic Messaging Framework. It lives as an OpenAI Custom GPT, a Gemini Gem, AND a Claude Project — same strategic brain, three surfaces. It writes 100% on-brand sales emails, proposals, follow-ups, LinkedIn posts, and content in seconds.

Great — you have a category strategy. PitchKitchen can take that work and translate it into shipped execution: a rebuilt homepage that lands the new category, a sales deck that arms your team to sell it, an AI Brand Twin trained on the category narrative, and sales training so reps can actually deliver the new story in customer conversations. We don't compete with Play Bigger — we extend their strategic work into the execution layer.

Book a free strategy call with Greg Rosner. He'll walk through your current story, where it's leaking, and whether the 90-Day Magnetic Messaging Sprint is the right fit for your stage and goals. There's no obligation and no sales pitch — just a real conversation about whether the work makes sense for your business right now.