Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.
Topic
Regulators, antitrust, and the rules of the game.
15 letters · most recent first
Kirsten Rasanen & Sameer Samat & Wilson White & Paul Feng ·Google ·17 OCT 2017
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
When a policy will anger your biggest partners, negotiate them into it privately before the world hears about it.
Purnima Kochikar & Tia Arzu & Paul Gennai & Jamie Rosenberg ·Google ·23 JUN 2018
Before you negotiate, know exactly how much the other side needs you — and make sure your team does too.
Purnima Kochikar & Tim Sweeney & Donald Harrison & Hiroshi Lockheimer ·Google / Epic Games ·10 DEC 2019
When you're picking a fight with a giant, don't ask for an exception — demand a rule change, and make sure everyone is watching.
Kirsten Rasanen & Samer Sayigh ·Google ·21 DEC 2023
The best-designed policy loses to the loudest possible critic — until you honestly weigh the cost of doing nothing.
Apple Legal Department ·Apple Inc. ·4 SEP 2020
When someone attacks your pricing, don't defend the price — redefine what they're actually paying for.
Apple Legal Department ·Apple Inc. ·8 SEP 2020
When someone attacks your price, don't defend the price — redefine what they're actually paying for.
Apple Legal Department ·Apple Inc. ·15 SEP 2020
When someone attacks your fee, don't defend the fee — redefine what they're actually buying.
Elon Musk & Greg Brockman & Ilya Sutskever & Jared Birchall ·OpenAI ·21 JUL 2017
A single email thread from mid-2017 captures OpenAI at the exact moment its founders were already sketching a path from nonprofit to for-profit to government project — while Musk was simultaneously cementing personal loyalty with early Tesla hardware.
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.
Mark Zuckerberg & Elon Musk ·Meta, Tesla/X ·13 DEC 2024
A brief December 2024 exchange reveals that Meta quietly aligned itself with Musk's legal challenge to OpenAI's nonprofit conversion, and that Zuckerberg moved immediately to manage the relationship directly.
DoorDash Leadership ·DoorDash ·15 FEB 2024
Growth and efficiency aren't opposites — they're phases. Knowing which phase you're in is the job.
Tim Sweeney ·Epic Games ·30 JUN 2020
When you can't beat a gatekeeper on their terms, reframe the fight as being about their customers, not you.
Tim Sweeney ·Epic Games ·17 JUL 2020
When a business dispute stops being about money and starts being about principle, the other side's lawyers are no longer the audience — the public and the courts are.
Tim Sweeney ·Epic Games ·13 AUG 2020
When you deliberately break a powerful partner's rules, the letter you send isn't a negotiation — it's the opening statement of a lawsuit you've already prepared.