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The Unconventional Path to Category Creation: How Cinchy is Making Integration Obsolete

Imagine telling enterprise buyers that sleeping is a disease and you have the cure. That’s essentially what Dan DeMers, founder of data collaboration platform Cinchy, faces as he pioneers a new enterprise software category. His mission? Convincing organizations that data integration – a practice as fundamental as sleep – is actually harmful to their business.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Dan shared his experience creating the data collaboration category, offering a masterclass in how founders can approach category creation without compromising their vision or falling into the trap of enterprise B2B conventionality.

The Psychology of Category Creation Dan’s approach to category creation started with a fundamental principle: “You can’t just dip your toes. You have to go all the way or none of the way.” This all-or-nothing mentality shaped everything from their messaging to their ecosystem development.

The challenge wasn’t just technical – it was psychological. As Dan explains, “Integration is perceived as good, but that doesn’t mean that can’t be changed… You can see ads from the not too distant past, the more doctors than any other smoke Camels, right? Like smoking was prescribed. It was good for you. What’s good for you today is often learned later that it is not good for you.”

Finding the Right Time Horizon One of the most critical lessons in Cinchy’s category creation journey was finding the right temporal focus for their messaging. Initially, they positioned applications as the enemy, envisioning a future where apps would become obsolete. However, they discovered this vision was too far-reaching for immediate market adoption.

“We realized that’s too far out into the future for people to really get their head around,” Dan shared. “It’s like talking about electric vehicles, I don’t know, 20 years ago when you knew it was theoretically possible, but practically no one would really end up be buying them en masse.”

The Category Hijacking Strategy Rather than waiting for perfect category recognition, Cinchy developed what Dan calls a “category hijacking” strategy: “We are designing a category, we are naming it, framing it, claiming it… But we are doing what we call category hijacking, which is we’re going to surf whatever the biggest wave is, but intercept that demand and redirect it.”

This approach allows them to capture existing market demand while steering it toward their category vision. Dan illustrates this with a powerful analogy: imagine introducing a mobile phone to a world of cordless phones – you can intercept the demand for cordless phones because a mobile phone is also cordless, but offers much more.

The Different vs. Better Framework One of Cinchy’s key learnings was the distinction between capturing attention and driving sales. “Different, not better, is amazing at getting attention, but it doesn’t translate to immediate sales,” Dan explains. “We are different, not better is the hook. But when it comes to a sales process, we are actually better because we are different.”

Building Category Infrastructure To support their category creation efforts, Cinchy established the Data Collaboration Alliance, a nonprofit organization designed to create partnerships and develop standards. This move allowed them to build ecosystem support without the friction that might come from a commercial entity pushing standards.

The Role of Enterprise Differentiation Unlike many enterprise B2B companies that play it safe with conventional branding, Cinchy deliberately chose to stand out. At a recent Gartner event, their “no integration” messaging and swag drew significant attention. “At least a third of the traffic that came to our booth and were definitely one of the busiest booths at the event was, what does this mean? The obsolescence of integration? Tell me more,” Dan shared.

For founders considering category creation, Dan’s experience offers a clear message: success requires complete commitment to the vision, even when conventional metrics can’t validate the approach. It’s about building an ecosystem, developing new frameworks for success, and maintaining unwavering conviction in the face of skepticism. As Dan puts it, “Sometimes you just have to rely on your gut… Not everything can be measured. Maybe one day it all can be measured, but that day is not today.”