If you’re building something new — something that doesn’t fit cleanly into an existing category — the natural instinct is to define your product. Explain it. Defend it. Draw boxes around what it does. 

But here’s a better question: what are your customers trying to achieve? 

Because the most compelling categories — the ones that scale, attract community, and shape markets — aren’t built around features. They’re built around people and what they’re trying to unlock. 

At Clearing, we’ve wrestled with this ourselves. We offer multi-currency accounts, cross-border payments, digital asset services, and more. But we’re not “just” a payments company. Or a treasury tool. Or a compliance layer. 

We’re building something bigger. And to do that, we had to stop trying to explain the product — and start designing the category around our clients’ realities. 

Most Categories Are Backward 

Too often, categories are defined by what the product is, not what it enables. 

That’s how you end up with: 

• “We’re like a bank, but faster” 

• “We’re a treasury platform, but with crypto” 

• “We’re an onboarding tool, but with payments” 

These aren’t categories. They’re comparisons. And they keep you playing someone else’s game. 

If you’re building something fundamentally new — or even just unusually useful — you’ll quickly realise there’s no simple way to explain it using existing definitions. That’s your cue to stop explaining, and start reframing. 

The shift is subtle but powerful: 

• From “what is it?” → to “what does it solve?” 

• From “what can it do?” → to “what does it unlock?” 

• From “how does it work?” → to “how does it help you grow?” 

Start with the customer. Stay with the customer. Build the story around what matters to them. 

The Real Question: What Friction Are You Clearing? 

We realised our customers weren’t waking up thinking: “I need a better payment partner.” 

They were thinking: 

• “Why is it still this hard to open accounts across jurisdictions?” 

• “Why does onboarding kill momentum when I’m trying to scale?” 

• “Why can I see my cash but not move it?” 

• “Why does it feel like my systems weren’t built to grow with me?” 

So we stopped positioning ourselves as a toolkit. 

We started owning the friction. 

That’s what led to the category we’re now building: Unified Global Financial Orchestration. 

It’s not a product. It’s a promise: that growing globally shouldn’t create more operational drag. 

Orchestration isn’t something our clients ask for by name. But it’s exactly what they need. They want to move faster, see more clearly, and stop drowning in fragmented systems, inconsistent onboarding, and patchwork treasury logic. 

By naming the friction and offering a better way forward, we’ve created space to lead. 

Three Rules for Building a Customer-Centric Category

→ 1. Solve a real tension — not just a use case 

What’s the recurring pain your audience feels as they grow? Name it. Articulate it better than anyone. Build around that, not the thing you’re selling. 

→ 2. Use your customers’ language — not your own 

 If you find yourself explaining what you do by saying, “It’s kind of like…”, stop. Interview clients. Look at what they actually say when describing the problem. Use that to build the frame. 

→ 3. Stay flexible — your category will evolve 

Early on, your category might feel too wide or too vague. That’s okay. Give it time. Let it take shape through your clients’ reactions, your team’s insights, and the market’s pull. 

Building a category isn’t a sprint. It’s a posture. It says: we’re going to show up, serve the market, and articulate a new way of operating — even if it takes time to catch on. 

Why This Matters More Than Ever 

In markets shaped by constant change — from AI and automation to global expansion and regulation — traditional categories are failing. 

Buyers aren’t just comparing products. They’re looking for alignment. They’re asking: 

• Who understands my reality? 

• Who’s seen this before? 

• Who is solving the problem I actually have? 

If your brand can answer those questions better than anyone else, you don’t need to compete on features. You’ll win on clarity, trust, and relevance. 

At Clearing, we didn’t set out to build a category. We set out to make it easier for businesses to grow globally — without dragging a tangled financial stack behind them. 

But along the way, we realised that helping our customers scale required more than just better tools. It required a new frame. One built around their complexity, their pace, and their ambitions. 

We’re still shaping it. But we’re building it from the outside in.