Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.
Topic
What gets written when the building is on fire.
13 letters · most recent first
Anthony Levandowski & Suzy Sammons ·Uber ·28 MAR 2017
This internal email captures Anthony Levandowski, at the center of the most significant trade-secret lawsuit in autonomous-vehicle history, calmly dividing talking points with Uber colleagues just weeks before he was pushed out of the company.
Travis Kalanick & David Drummond ·Uber / Google ·7 MAR 2015
A calendar tells you more about a partnership than any press release ever will.
Michael Rapino & David Marcus & Tara Traub & Mark Yovich & Michael Wichser ·Live Nation Entertainment / Ticketmaster ·22 AUG 2022
The moment a client's manager whispers 'double dipping,' you have minutes to build a clear answer — or you have a narrative crisis.
Dario Amodei & Emil Michael ·Anthropic ·26 FEB 2026
When the other side rewrites your redlines into meaningless words, name the trick precisely — then keep the door open.
Michal D. Cann & John L. (Jack) Wagner ·WASHINGTON BANKING CO ·21 AUG 2008
Knowing when to kill a deal is as valuable as knowing when to sign one.
Steven E. Fass & David T. Foy ·White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd ·10 APR 2006
Risk models are tools, not oracles — and the leaders who survive bad years are the ones who say so out loud.
DSP Group Board of Directors ·DSP Group Inc ·11 MAR 2013
Control of the boardroom is control of strategy — and some investors know exactly how to take it one committee at a time.
Richard McCathron ·Hippo Holdings Inc. ·10 NOV 2022
The best risk management happens months before the storm, not during it.
Richard McCathron ·Hippo Holdings Inc. ·7 MAY 2025
The best time to expand is right after you've finished cutting — not before.
Warren Buffett ·Berkshire Hathaway ·1 MAR 2010
Liquidity is a strategic weapon disguised as a boring balance sheet item — its real return shows up only when everyone else runs out.
Reed Hastings ·Netflix ·18 SEP 2011
Five words. No throat-clearing. No qualifier. The apology arrives before the explanation, which is the only order that ever works.
Warren Buffett ·Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. ·27 FEB 2009
Buffett doesn't apologize for the loss. He apologizes for the analysis. Those are different things and most CEOs conflate them.
Travis Kalanick ·Uber ·22 OCT 2013
The memo's existence is more instructive than its contents. The contents are the symptom; the existence is the diagnosis.