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Deepak Gupta markGTM Map

Category creation

Naming a new category and selling the category before selling the product.

Counts as evidence: The company coined or deliberately promoted a category name as part of its go-to-market.

Who ran it

  • HubSpot · Naming inbound, then selling it by phone · 2006 to 2014

    Category creation Primary

    The founders' letter in the IPO prospectus describes calling the traditional method outbound and the new way inbound: pulling people in with useful content. HubSpot's own biography of Brian Halligan credits him with coining inbound marketing.

  • HubSpot · Beyond search: owned media and answer engines · 2022 to now

    Category creation Supporting

    HubSpot launched Loop Marketing as its playbook for the AI era and renamed INBOUND to UNBOUND, saying a name rooted in one internet-era method was not enough.