Travis Kalanick & David Drummond ·Uber / Google ·7 MAR 2015
When Your Partner Stops Taking Meetings, Believe the Silence
A calendar tells you more about a partnership than any press release ever will.
Topic
Partnerships
Deals, alliances, and the leverage underneath them.
39 letters · most recent first
Ed Baker & Jessica E. Lessin ·Uber ·26 DEC 2014
When Your Investor Becomes Your Biggest Competitor
The moment a board member starts leaving the room, the partnership is already over — the question is just who moves first.
Lawrence Koh ·Google ·13 FEB 2020
Stop the Bleeding First, Then Sign the Contract
When a partner is about to walk, buy the pause first and negotiate the terms later.
Paul Gennai & Atul Kumar & Samer Sayigh & Jamie Rosenberg & Alexi Douvas & Shafiq Ahmed & Mike Petrillo ·Google ·26 MAR 2019
Hide The Price By Bundling It
When one number scares a partner, wrap it inside a bigger one they can't easily unpack.
Jim Kolotouros & Jamie Rosenberg & Hiroshi Lockheimer & Sameer Samat ·Google ·30 MAY 2019
Bundle Your Assets Before A Partner Unbundles You
When one partner controls half your revenue, stop negotiating deal by deal — treat every dollar you send them as one connected bet.
Kirsten Rasanen & Sameer Samat & Wilson White & Paul Feng ·Google ·17 OCT 2017
Preview Bad News Before You Ship It
When you're about to close a door on a big partner, walking through it in person costs you nothing and buys you information you can't get any other way.
Kirsten Rasanen & Jamie Rosenberg & Sameer Samat ·Google ·18 SEP 2017
Pre-Sell The Policy Before You Announce It
When a policy will anger your biggest partners, negotiate them into it privately before the world hears about it.
Kirsten Rasanen ·Google ·7 FEB 2018
When Your Biggest Partners Refuse Your Terms, Listen
A 10% discount can't buy compliance when the real objection is losing control of the customer.
Purnima Kochikar & Sarah Karam & Brandon Barras & Paul Feng & Sameer Samat ·Google ·23 JUL 2019
When Your Customer Brings Demand, They Hold the Leverage
If a user was already searching for your product before arriving at the platform, the platform didn't create that demand — and both sides know it.
Purnima Kochikar & Jamie Rosenberg & Sidney Lee & Marc Shedroff ·Google ·10 JUN 2020
Grant the Favor Without Changing the Contract
The most powerful concession is one you give verbally and can quietly take back — without ever touching the written agreement.
Purnima Kochikar & Jamie Rosenberg ·Google ·19 JUL 2018
Choreograph the Meeting Before You Walk In
Great negotiators don't just prepare arguments — they stage-manage what the other side hears, when, and from whom.
Purnima Kochikar & Jamie Rosenberg & Bob Meese ·Google ·3 AUG 2013
The Real Moat Is Distribution, Not Billing
Developers won't pay you 30% to process a credit card. They'll pay it to reach customers.
Jamie Rosenberg & Tian Lim & Erin Crosby & Sameer Samat ·Google ·7 FEB 2019
Neutralize a Rival by Absorbing Their Ambition
When a partner tries to build a competing store, don't fight the ambition — offer to power it.
Phil Spencer & Jeff D Fisher ·Microsoft ·22 FEB 2023
Phil Spencer and Jeff Fisher Exchange After Microsoft-NVIDIA GeForce NOW Deal
Captured days after Microsoft signed a ten-year cloud-gaming agreement with NVIDIA, this brief exchange between the heads of Xbox and NVIDIA's GeForce unit surfaced inside the FTC's lawsuit to block Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition — making private deal-making correspondence part of the public antitrust record.
Joe Berchtold & Michael Wichser ·Live Nation/Ticketmaster ·12 AUG 2022
When You Already Own the Market, Your Deal Goal Changes
When you already have most of the volume, the only deal worth signing is one that locks in the future and protects what you have.
Ruth Porat & Jamie Rosenberg ·Google ·21 JUL 2017
Ruth Porat and Jamie Rosenberg Discuss Samsung Search Revenue-Share Deal
A two-line executive sign-off on a Samsung search agreement captures, in near-real time, the commercial machinery at the heart of the U.S. government's landmark antitrust case against Google.
Neal Mohan & David Rosenblatt & Marc Schraer & Sean Downey & Andrew Rutledge & Ruth Kirschner ·Google ·13 FEB 2009
Don't Compete on Price When You Own the Platform
When a rival slashes prices out of desperation, the answer isn't matching them — it's reminding your customers what game you're actually playing.
Neal Mohan & Eric Rosenblum ·Google ·20 AUG 2010
Keep New Businesses Focused, Not Merged
When a young business is fighting to establish itself, the worst thing you can do is bury it inside a bigger org chart.
Julie Sterling Osterling & Jonathan Bellack & Heidi O'brien & Chris Jansen & Brian Tomasette & Jason Sigalos ·Google ·29 SEP 2015
When Sales Can't Answer The Question, You Have A Strategy Problem
If your own sales team can't explain why you don't do the thing customers want, the market has already made the decision for you.
Dario Amodei & Emil Michael ·Anthropic ·26 FEB 2026
How to Walk Away Without Burning the Bridge
When the other side rewrites your redlines into meaningless words, name the trick precisely — then keep the door open.
Square Investor Relations Team ·Square, Inc. ·1 NOV 2016
Win Bigger Customers Without Cutting Your Price
The strongest growth signal in this letter isn't revenue — it's that larger sellers are choosing Square on product merit, not discounts.
Richard McCathron ·Hippo Holdings Inc. ·6 AUG 2025
Sell the asset, keep the distribution, triple your reach
The smartest asset sale isn't an exit — it's a trade: cash plus a bigger channel.
Neal Mohan ·Google ·31 JAN 2009
Open Platforms Stop Where Your Profit Starts
Be open to partners — until the partner's product replaces the part of yours that actually makes money.
Elon Musk ·OpenAI ·28 JUN 2017
How to Turn a Partner's Asset Into Your Competitive Weapon
The fastest way to build a moat is to make someone else's resources do the work — before your rivals think to ask.
Kate Plikus ·Microsoft ·2 OCT 2018
Why Scale Is The Real Moat In Ad Auctions
In ad markets, scale isn't just an advantage — it's the price of admission to compete at all.
Jeff Shardell ·Google ·4 JUN 2007
Price Your Distribution Power Honestly
When a partner asks for the same price on a worse deal, the right answer starts with naming what you're actually buying.
Michael Murphy ·Google ·17 MAR 2020
When to Pay Less and Still Keep the Shelf Space
Sometimes the smartest negotiation move is paying your partners less — if you can redirect that money to win the customers who matter most.
Denelle Dixon-Thayer ·Mozilla ·4 NOV 2014
When to Pick the Risky Partner Over the Safe One
Sometimes the best deal isn't the biggest check — it's the one that buys you back your independence.
Joan Braddi & Sundar Pichai & Sergey Brin & Jonathan Rosenberg ·Google ·7 JUN 2007
Don't Pay for Customers You Already Own
If your partner brings no real users to the deal, they aren't a partner — they're a toll booth.
Anna Kartasheva ·Google ·4 JUN 2020
Lock The Default, Own The Front Door
When you can't win the device, win every doorway on it.
Nate Morgan ·Google ·19 OCT 2019
When Your Data Proves You Right, Use It Fast
The moment you have data that proves your recommendation was correct, stop being polite — escalate immediately and make the case with numbers.
Eileen Naughton ·Google ·19 MAY 2008
A Green Light With Guardrails: How Smart Leaders Approve Risky Ideas
The most valuable approval you can get isn't a blank check — it's a conditional yes that tells you exactly where the limits are.
Neal Mohan & Jonathan Bellack & Brad Bender & Ari Paparo ·Google LLC ·25 JUN 2009
Control Who Builds On Your Platform Before You Open The Doors
Once you open a platform to everyone, you lose the right to choose who gets to compete with you on it — so pick your moment carefully.
Jag Duggal ·Google ·6 APR 2010
Own Both Sides of the Market or Someone Else Will
If you control the plumbing on both the buyer and seller side, you don't just win transactions — you define the rules of the game.
Kento Sugiura ·Google ·23 AUG 2010
When Your Platform Is Threatened From Both Sides
When you sit in the middle of a market, your biggest danger isn't one competitor — it's being squeezed from every direction at once.
Zachary Goldberg ·Google ·18 FEB 2011
When Competitors Force You to Cannibalize Yourself
If rivals are already selling what you fear to build, the only thing worse than disrupting your own business is letting them do it for you.
Marc Theermann ·Google ·10 SEP 2012
Use Your Hot Product to Lock Customers Into Your Platform
When you have a product everyone wants, the real question isn't how to sell it — it's what else you can pull through the door with it.
Eisar Lipkovitz & Jonathan Bellack ·Google LLC ·4 JAN 2017
Control the Decision Layer, Win the Market
Whoever owns the decision-maker in a stack owns the economics — everything else is just inventory.
Jonathan Bellack ·Google ·20 JAN 2017
When a Big Customer Fires You, Sell Value Not Price
When a customer pulls the plug, you have one shot — show them what they're losing, not just what you'll discount.