When the Industry Zigs, It’s Time to Zag: How Category Creation Wins in Commercial Finance

When the Industry Zigs, It’s Time to Zag: How Category Creation Wins in Commercial Finance

Why Following the Crowd is a Shortcut to Obscurity

In today’s commercial finance landscape, it’s tempting to benchmark success against the nearest competitor—better rates, faster approvals, lower fees. But this approach is a trap. It’s a race to the bottom that commoditizes your service, thins your margins, and dilutes your value. At the finish line? A long list of indistinguishable lenders doomed to price themselves out of relevance.

To stand out in this saturated space, it’s not about doing what others do slightly better—it’s about doing something entirely different.

Apple Didn’t Compete—It Created

Remember the Apple vs. PC era? While other manufacturers obsessed over specs and pricing, Apple zagged. It didn’t chase competitors; it created a new category. The Mac wasn’t just a personal computer—it was a wholly different user experience built around elegance, simplicity, and seamless integration. It was emotional. Aspirational.

The result? While PC brands churned through generations of indistinct boxes, Apple built loyalty, brand power, and a platform that changed culture—not just tech.

Finance Needs the Same Rethink

Commercial finance firms have long been stuck in the PC-era mindset—competing on cost, structure, and underwriting velocity. But buyers aren’t just looking for cheaper money. They want clarity. Control. Partnership. They want financing that feels different—easier, smarter, more human.

Instead of shaving half a point off a rate, the real opportunity lies in building a new category around the business borrower experience. What if financing wasn’t just a transaction but a system that aligned better with how today’s buyers think, work, and grow?

Category Creators Don’t Just Close Deals—They Build Movements

When you reimagine the experience—how deals are sourced, how relationships are nurtured, how insights are surfaced—you stop being “another option” and start being the only one who gets it. You don’t just win business. You redefine expectations.

That’s how category creators dominate: they don’t fight for market share within old boundaries—they redraw the map entirely.

The Exit List Is Long. The Future Is Narrow.

Hundreds of names have exited commercial finance in the last decade. Most were competent. Some were even well-capitalized. But they followed. They priced. They chased.

The winners of the next decade won’t be faster or cheaper—they’ll be different. They’ll bring clarity in complexity, elegance in execution, and empathy in design.

Just like Apple did.