The Value of 'Different'
October 9, 2025
You probably don’t know who Christopher Lochhead is. I didn’t until I heard him on legendary VC Mike Maples’ podcast. That’s when I first heard the term ‘category creation’ and my mindset was changed. I was enthralled as Lochhead outlined the value in creating a category and not playing the same game as everyone else. I had another reminder last month in San Francisco, listening to another legend, Alfred Lin. During Alfred’s one hour Q&A, he touched on the value of being different (he didn’t use the term category creation), as he described what drew him to invest in Airbnb.
I spent 17 years working at a Volvo CE dealer. Dealers are prime offenders of what Lochhead describes. Whether you’re a Volvo dealer, John Deere, Komatsu, it doesn’t matter. They all fall into the same trap: they want to be CAT. They run their business the same as the CAT dealer. Unfortunately for all of those dealers, they aren’t CAT. They don’t have the same amount of resources- people, facilities, or capabilities. CAT wants you to play the same game as them. But no one wants to be David.
Why do companies do this? Because it’s easy. It’s easy to look at the market leader and think you can have success copying the formula. These companies get caught in the ‘better’ game. You try to convince customers that you’re company is incrementally better. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I can say from experience, customers don’t believe you when you’re a Volvo dealer and you tell them you’re better at x than CAT. Same for John Deere and Komatsu.
This principle of category creation led us to on-demand service at Heave. We repair heavy machinery. That’s all we have in common with OEM dealers. How we do it is completely different. If you see our marketing, we never say Heave is “better”. We’re different. We began with a vision: what will field service look like in the future? That’s what we’ve built. If you’re a customer who thinks your OEM dealer is great at service, then we’re not for you. Our solution is based on speed, transparency, and customer alignment.
Different is incredibly tough in the beginning. We’re not wired to seek out different, as there’s comfort with familiarity. But, if you’re different AND you deliver, you can be the one who changes the paradigm. Now you’re the only game in town and you’re the standard.
