The $13 Trillion Dollar Trap

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May 29, 2025, 06:00 ET

A new prequel from authors of Play Bigger uncovers the trap costing startups (and investors) trillions, and how to escape it.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly a decade after the international bestselling business book Play Bigger introduced Category Design to the world, co-authors Al Ramadan and Christopher Lochhead return—alongside new collaborators Jason Wellcome and Mary Grice—with a bold follow-up new book:

The Existing Market Trap: A Primer.

It's not a sequel.

It's a prequel.

For the first-time naming the enemy Play Bigger was always solving for:

The Existing Market Trap.

"You build something new—and the market compares it to something old," said Al Ramadan. "That's the Existing Market Trap. And it crushes companies at every growth stage."

Capital Destruction

In the past decade, more than $17 trillion^* has been invested into startups, scaleups, and innovation—and yet, nearly 90% of companies fail to return capital.

The problem isn't bad products or weak teams.

It's that most companies fall into a trap they can't see.

The Core Thesis: Belief Is the Most Powerful Product You Can Ship

"It's not about features," said Wellcome. "It's about making the market believe. That's how you stop being misunderstood—and start becoming the only."

Real Companies. Real Escapes.

The EMT Primer includes first-person stories from companies that escaped the trap and launched new categories:

ClearMetal → from AI platform to Predictive Logistics
Qualtrics → from survey tool to Experience Management
DocuSign → from eSignature to Intelligent Agreement Management

"We had great software, but no one got it," said Adam Compain, founder of ClearMetal. "Category Design gave us the language, the problem, the story. The Existing Market Trap explains that moment perfectly."

The 13 Deadly Sins That Kill Growth Before It Starts

The book introduces a taxonomy of 13 failure patterns—called Deadly Sins—based on work with 125+ companies.

These sins show up before product issues.

Before revenue stalls.

Before anyone realizes what's really going wrong.

From the Engineer's Dilemma to Existential Decline, each sin is a red flag founders need to see—and escape—before it's too late.

"These failure patterns are heart breaking" said Lochhead, "They cause so much more than loss of capital, they cause Founder Burnout, Team Misalignment, Missed Timing, Undervalue Acquisitions and Innovation that Disappeared in the Shadows."

Positioning Is Dead

The authors also shine a light on an industry belief that has caused more damage than bad code.

"Positioning asks where you fit," said Lochhead. "Category Design asks what future are you building. One keeps you trapped. In the past. The other sets you free. To create a different future"

The authors argue that startups don't need better strategy, marketing or products. They need sharper framing, clearer belief, and entirely new categories.

What Industry Leaders Are Saying About The Existing Market Trap

"I've seen what happens when a company escapes the Existing Market Trap," said Bryan Schreier, Partner at Sequoia Capital. "Qualtrics didn't just build a better product—they created a new category that redefined how businesses think about experience. This book gives founders the language and the playbook to do the same. It's not just insightful—it's essential."

"We started with a narrow slice of the problem—but quickly realized that wasn't enough. Category Design helped us zoom out, see the whole talent journey, and reframe the conversation." said Mahe Bayireddi, Co-Founder & CEO, Phenom. "That shift—from point solution to platform, from product to POV—changed everything. This Existing Market Trap Book shines a light on the traps most founders don't see until it's too late."

"The Existing Market Trap hits home for me. I've lived through the evolution of enterprise communications—from conference calls to Microsoft Teams—and now from surveys to Experience Management at Qualtrics. Said Zig Serafin, CEO, Qualtrics, "If you're ready to unlock a new era of growth and impact, this is your essential guide."

And from the investor perspective: "The best investments aren't just bets on product-market fit—they're bets on belief-market fit," said Eric Chin, Managing General Partner at Crosslink Capital. "The Existing Market Trap names the silent killer of breakout companies and gives founders a path to category leadership. Every investor should be fluent in this language—and every founder should read this book before starting their company."

Published for the Age of AI — and the New Rules of Launch

The Existing Market Trap is being launched using a new playbook. Instead of the traditional 18-month publishing cycle, the authors are releasing in strategic waves: