Welcome Ed, Kirk, Marie, Steve, Maria and the others who subscribed this week. First to Market is a free newsletter with lens on business for people building in emerging categories. Please share it with someone else who would find it helpful. They can subscribe here.
Every year car dealerships across the US post photos of their sales teams holding an award from Recurrent, the startup where I lead marketing. Last year a dealer even wrote to ask us why they were not recognized.
(This year we call them a customer.)
The award matters to them because car shoppers trust our brand, and a dealer wants to be associated with that trust. But it’s not some bizarre or vain quirk limited to car dealers.
PolyAI has published 20+ blog posts featuring third-party recognition from Forbes, Deloitte, Inc. and the Stevie Awards. It sells to enterprise customers, and those buyers want the proof (and defensibility) to pick PolyAI. That proof means more coming from someone else.
For brands in a new category, there’s often no trade journal award or industry conference bestowing that kind of recognition yet. That’s actually good news. A startup (like us) can be the one to fill that gap before anyone else does.
I’ve written before that a new category solidifies when people start using your definition of the category. From my experience, recognition gives them a reason: The other companies that we recognize repeat our definition (a.k.a. our view of the world) when they share the news, and the companies that want to be recognized next year start paying attention.
You don’t need a big brand to do this. You simply need trust on a topic, like a founder’s years in the industry or data nobody else has.
Here’s how I’ve turned trust into an award platform, and the four steps that you can replicate in your own emerging category. Plus, this is something I’m doing with First to Market so each step includes an example of how I’m thinking about it for 2027.
1. Start where people already trust you
Think of your “standing” as a topic where your industry already trusts your judgment. When you recognize someone, you’re lending them that trust so it needs to be connected to the topic. (No one should trust me on visual design or cutting hair, as COVID-quarantine haircuts were terrible.)
Recurrent publishes research that car shoppers read before buying. A recommendation on dealerships to consider is a natural extension of that existing trust.
Zappi (message testing) sells consumer research so each year it tests the Super Bowl ads and publishes the winners.
RiskLens (cyber risk) cofounders wrote the industry standard on cyber risk, which is used to recognize risk leaders.
Test it: What can you see about your industry that most people can’t? Then ask who outside your company would care: a prospect, an investor, a reporter, a creator. Each match between what you can see and who cares is a place you have standing.
For First to Market: We’re a small group of people building in new categories so the newsletter’s standing isn’t a massive audience size. It’s more likely the category database that underpins each article with 14,500+ continuously updated data points on companies in emerging categories. That’s a view almost no one else has so founders, marketers and investors care about it.
2. Choose the people who shape your category
The obvious choice is your prospects. But consider how prospects aren’t the only people who shape an emerging category. Trade media, partners, analysts and investors are all influential stakeholders. At least consider the people whose participation you need most right now before defaulting to Prospects.
Webflow (CMS) started the Webflow Awards with categories for its community, customers and partners.
Sierra (help desk) built Tau Bench to test whether AI agents can reliably complete real customer service tasks. Anthropic reports tau-bench scores when announcing new models.
Bessemer helps select the Forbes Cloud 100. It recognizes the same types of companies that Bessemer invests in.
Test it: Whose participation do you need most both this year and in 3 years? Then ask what they’d be eager to receive from you every year.
For First to Market: This newsletter is designed around the founders and growth leaders in new categories. They are the readers, the people I interview each week, and guide the brands that the database tracks. It makes sense for me to recognize top performers with annual Emerging Category Awards. (See what I’m doing there?)
3. Make it worth something to everyone involved
We need to think of it as three audiences: you, the people you recognize and the people getting value from reading the results. At Recurrent, here’s how that looks:
We get to shape our category and talk with potential customers.
Those recipients get recognition from a brand that their customers trust.
The consumers reading it find somewhere to shop without a bad experience.
Serving all three is what ties the program to our mission (and I think what makes it successful). Plus, if the two audiences get more out of it than you do, it has authentic value vs being received as a tacky sales gimmick.
Recurrent sends each recipient a physical award, signage for its store and graphics for social media to promote the recognition to customers.
Cloud 100 honorees received a physical award, a digital badge and a feature in Forbes.
Amazon, on the other hand, invited cities to compete for its second headquarters. The cities gave a lot and got little, which led to local backlash from residents.
Test it: Would the people you recognize put the “award” (or whatever) on display? Would someone reading the results find value or use them to make a decision? If you’d still benefit with those two coming out ahead, that’s probably the winning balance.
For First to Market: The Emerging Category Awards are set up so the other two audiences come out ahead.
Recognized companies and their teams get outside credit for their work. Marketing teams rarely get that kind of recognition, and it’s something they can show their CEO and add to their own resume. (I would love that as a marketing leader.)
Subscribers get a couple dozen smaller tactics worth borrowing that likely wouldn’t fill a weekly post on their own, but bundled they show what is working this year.
4. Create an annual stage
New categories mostly don’t have their own big industry event. You can be the one to create that space, and it doesn’t need a big budget. At Recurrent, we hand out our awards at a luncheon during an industry conference, and recipients get free passes.
Then repeating it every year changes how people look at it, even if the first year is a teeny bit sad. But by the 2nd year people that weren’t included will write to ask how to get involved next year. That’s a conversation we probably couldn’t have started with a cold email.
Glassdoor gives Best Places to Work based on employee reviews with no direct costs.
Nextdoor lets neighbors vote for its Fave Awards once a year, and winners get a sticker for their storefront window.
Product Hunt gave Golden Kitty Awards based on community votes and contribution metrics.
Test it: Imagine the moment you announce it. Who’s paying attention? Who would want to be included if they could be? Then create the venue or medium to fit the opportunity.
For First to Market: I don’t have a conference and I don’t want one. Ever. I also don’t think busy startup leaders want another banquet. They want recognition for their team’s work and a little exposure. Their stories are the thing I write about anyway so our interests are aligned.
Share Your Standing with Someone Else
Most of us spend our “standing” on our own product and brand. From the PR article a couple weeks ago, that’s actually the place that it has the least weight. It means more when recognizing something we don’t own.
The first year can be super small. Recognizing a few people or brands for a single thing you feel comfortable judging is enough to start. Before you know it, you’ll be handing out awards over lunch at a big industry conference, like we do at Recurrent.
From the Workbench This Week
As you can tell by now, I designed the Emerging Category Awards page this week. It looks okay for v1 and I’m excited to start sharing it.
If you have a company in mind, early nominations are welcome. I’ll share more as it takes shape, plus a full debrief after the finalists are announced.
Have a beautiful week.