Great Memos

Roman governor's letter to Emperor Trajan seeking guidance on prosecuting early Christians.

Washington's warning to the nation about political parties, foreign entanglements, and national unity.

Confidential memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlining a strategy for corporate influence in politics.

DuPont executive's memo on nuclear energy development in the post-WWII era.

Secretary of State's strategic memo on U.S. foreign policy during the Reagan administration.

Churchill's memo demanding concise reporting from military and government officials during WWII.

Yahoo executive's leaked memo warning about spreading resources too thin, predicting the company's decline.

76ers GM's 13-page resignation letter defending "The Process" and long-term strategic thinking in basketball.

Slack CEO's memo on focusing on what matters and building products users love, not just features.

Starbucks founder's transformation agenda memo outlining the turnaround strategy during the financial crisis.

Facebook's strategic vision for building a comprehensive messaging platform and ecosystem.

Texts from Zuckerberg to Instagram's Kevin Systrom during Facebook's acquisition negotiations.

Disney Studios chairman's famous memo on revitalizing Disney through creative excellence and cost discipline.

MTV President's legendary memo with over 200 suggestions to fix VH1 and revitalize the network.

Hulu CEO's prescient blog post on how the internet will transform content distribution, written despite Hulu's media ownership.

Advertising legend's principles for creating effective campaigns and building a creative agency.

Jobs' emails regarding Apple's iBooks strategy and negotiations with publishers.

Musk's direct email to Tesla employees about productivity, meetings, and organizational efficiency.

Gates' frustrated email about Windows Movie Maker's difficult installation process, exemplifying user-first thinking.

Historic memo where Gates recognizes the Internet as a "tidal wave" and pivots Microsoft's entire strategy.

Google engineer's accidentally public post comparing Amazon and Google's platform philosophies.

TV writer's comprehensive guide to showrunning, covering creative leadership and production management.

IBM's philosophy on presenting solutions, not problems—bringing fully-formed recommendations to leadership.

Microsoft's detailed postmortem analysis of the development effort to launch Word 1.0.

Quality management philosophy emphasizing prevention over inspection and doing things right the first time.

Microsoft CTO's classic memo on how the internet will disrupt everything, companion to Gates's tidal wave memo.

Ray Ozzie's classic internal memo to Microsoft on the need to focus on internet services and web-based software.

Facebook VP's memo on advertising strategy and the philosophy behind Facebook's ad platform.

Zuckerberg's reasoning for why Facebook should acquire Unity, from Blake Harris's "History of the Future".

Buffett's analysis of Berkshire Hathaway's investment in GEICO during the company's financial crisis.

Buffett's letter to the President of See's candy on brand positioning.

Buffett's letter explaining his investment philosophy and why he's closing his partnership due to lack of opportunities.

Buffett's letter to Catherine Graham detailing how to save the Washington Post pension system.

Munger's resignation from the Mutual Savings and Loan Association due to industry scandals he found disgusting.

Munger's reflection on how Berkshire Hathaway was built, what worked, and what will continue to work.

Email correspondence between Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' close friend Jeff Raikes on investing in Microsoft.

Whistleblower's detailed analysis exposing Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, ignored by the SEC for years.

Sequoia partner's memo detailing knowledge and learnings from their YouTube investment case.

Bessemer's early investment memo on Yelp, the local business review platform founded by PayPal alumni.

Bessemer Venture Partners' investment memo on LinkedIn's Series C, analyzing the professional networking site's network effects.

Bessemer's Series A investment memo for LifeLock, analyzing the identity theft protection market opportunity.

Bessemer's seed investment in Wix, the Tel Aviv-based website builder for mass market consumers.

Bessemer's seed investment in Dropcam, analyzing the Internet camera service for consumers.

Bessemer's seed investment in Twilio's communications API platform, joining Founders Fund and Mitch Kapor.

Bessemer's investment in Mindbody, a SaaS platform for fitness centers, yoga studios, and spas.

Bessemer's Series A memo for Shopify, analyzing the e-commerce platform for SMBs.

Bessemer's investment in Medi Assist, India's largest third party administrator of health insurance claims.

Bessemer's investment in Fiverr, the Israel-based marketplace for five-dollar micro-services.

Bessemer's early investment memo on Pinterest, the social e-commerce platform for curating product catalogs.

Bessemer's Series B investment in SendGrid, the email Platform-as-a-Service company.

Bessemer's Series B investment in Twitch.tv (formerly Justin.TV), the game streaming platform.

Goldman Sachs executive director's scathing New York Times op-ed on the firm's toxic culture and client treatment.

Bessemer's seed investment in Auth0, the "Twilio of identity" for web and mobile app authentication.

Bessemer's Series B investment memo for PagerDuty, the incident response platform for developers.

Bessemer's Series B investment in Rocket Lab, the aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider.

Bessemer's Series A investment in ServiceTitan, vertical SaaS for home services businesses.

Bessemer's Series A memo for Velo3D, analyzing the breakthrough 3D metal printing technology.

Bessemer's Series B investment in Toast, the Boston-based restaurant point of sale software company.

Sosin's detailed investment philosophy memo outlining his approach to value investing and capital allocation.