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I Write Letters to CEOs

johnwdefeo.com

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Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#21

Post by Spooky23 »

winter_blue wrote: post #7

How do some of these CEOs have the time to respond so throughly to random letters? Is it possible that someone is ghostwriting for them?

In government, there are constituent management systems that allow staffers to manage correspondence, calendars, etc. Letters get triaged and things of interest either due to subject matter, the person writing it, etc move up the food chain. Depending on the principal, they see a few dozen per week.

These systems also allow for tagging of people too. Crazy people, various group affiliation (union, conservative, pro-x, anti-y), VIP status, etc. They also queue up personalized responses to specific issues to be timed with events, press hits, etc.

Many high level people really enjoy hearing from real people.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#22

Post by eropple »

Orangeair wrote: post #20
winter_blue wrote: post #7

How do some of these CEOs have the time to respond so throughly to random letters? Is it possible that someone is ghostwriting for them?

I believe that they're actually responding. Gabe Newell (the CEO of Valve) is worth billions[1], and has been known to respond to emails personally[2]. [1] https://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-is-worth-55-billion-acco... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2keaco/i_sent...

Story time: in college, I played a lot of the Team Fortress 2 beta. When the release came around, performance tanked. Absolutely went straight to hell. Annoyed, I fired a snippy email off to Gabe. Not impolite, but snippy, something around "I expect performance regressions like this out of companies less awesome than Valve." The next day, a senior engineer at Valve reached out to me, we hopped on Skype, played a few rounds with a bunch of Valve employees, and we monitored my system perf. A few days later, I got an email, "next patch should help you out, let me know if not"--happy as a clam afterwards.

These days I have more than a few beefs with Steam, but that sort of reaction sticks, and generates a lot of goodwill.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#23

Post by jen729w »

Orangeair wrote: post #20
winter_blue wrote: post #7

How do some of these CEOs have the time to respond so throughly to random letters? Is it possible that someone is ghostwriting for them?

I believe that they're actually responding. Gabe Newell (the CEO of Valve) is worth billions[1], and has been known to respond to emails personally[2]. [1] https://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-is-worth-55-billion-acco... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2keaco/i_sent...

Just for those of you looking at the URL slug and thinking, holy cow, $55bn! ... it's $5.5bn.

Still impressive, but I had to click to find out how a videogame guy could possibly be worth fifty-five-thousand-million dollars. :-/

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#24

Post by anoncoward111 »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #19

Years ago I wrote a letter to Paul Raines, then the CEO of Gamestop. Mainly I complained how terrible the store experience was. Whereas Apple stores feel like an avant-garde museum Gamestops feel like the inside of a Chuck E. Cheese circa 1987 -- games everywhere, no real organization, no marketing of individual titles or genres, it's just grabbag nonsense of plastic container after plastic container. Days after I se…

this is an incredible story and has personally made an impact on me

i didn't know paul before he died (on my birthday even), but because of your comment, i researched his story

i work in sales, so rejection and silence are very frequent. it is rare for anyone to connect through writing or through voice, and quite often i feel like nobody desires to brainstorm and have fun thinking about ideas in a low pressure environment

i wish you well in life and i hope that we can both live every day to the fullest-- because not all of us have the luxury of time

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#25

Post by hajrice »

When I was a teenager, I wrote to Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, telling him how he's had such a huge impact on me, and how he's very inspiring to me.

He responded that I buy one of his two books.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#26

Post by obblekk »

> CONSIDER INVESTING IN RESPONSIVE COMPANIES

No.

As he notes, the sample size is ridiculously small. It's simply too likely that he got lucky with 1 or 2 companies in his "respond" group.

e.g., if he wrote these letters in the the early 90s and Buffet responded, he's immediately skewed his returns up because Buffet outperformed the market SO much in the 90s. That's likely luck, not replicable skill.

Otherwise, interesting article and the 1/3 response rate is surprisingly high.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#27

Post by anoncoward111 »

mykull wrote: post #5

This is some real ball-fondling born-into-privilege nonsense. I could write to CEOs too, but I wouldn't be so impressed with their boilerplate social interaction, and the predictability of it is why I won't.

i don't agree with your opinion, but don't think you should be silenced for having an opinion

it is always really refreshing to receive a response from anyone that is semi human. i'm in sales, and 99% of my outreach attempts end in silence or rejection

to form a personal connection with someone who is running a multi billion dollar business that could very well go bankrupt if mismanaged, well, its interesting to share ideas with them

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#28

Post by wallflower »

I got my first job in the tech industry by writing a thank you letter.

Many years ago I met the CEO of a tech company at a networking event for recent college grads that they hosted. Like a job fair but with a twist. Having read Brian D. Krueger's excellent "College Grad Job Hunter" [1], I had business cards prepared. This was long before Moo.com so they were printed out on my Deskjet on Avery pre-perforated card stock. I went with my ill-fitting suit and mismatched shoes/belt, and I was talking to someone from a small tech company and I got a tap on the shoulder, "Our CEO would like to get a picture with you." Having miniscule networking mojo and knowledge, I actually followed the PR person without excusing myself. We took the photo, and I asked if I could give him my business card. He said yes, and he gave me his.

The next day, I wrote him a letter. I honestly wrote how I liked that this networking event was not the usual deal but more like a classy cocktail event and a great opportunity to meet other companies in a less-networky, relaxed atmosphere. I thanked him and the company for hosting it.

I ended up later getting hired by his company (I was invited to apply, someone called me) and worked there for many years, as I learned the art and trade of software development, starting from nothing and someone who managed to bluff their way through the interviews.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/College-Grad-Job-Hunter-Entry-level/d... (highly recommend this, written from the perspective of the hiring manager)

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#29

Post by xavdid »

hajrice wrote: post #25

When I was a teenager, I wrote to Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, telling him how he's had such a huge impact on me, and how he's very inspiring to me. He responded that I buy one of his two books.

I worked for a startup that was acquired by Salesforce. Pretty soon after it was all official, they sent over 200 signed copies of his book.

This is especially notable because they weren't signed by him - just by random other SFDC employees. It was a nice gesture, I guess.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#30

Post by make3 »

obblekk wrote: post #26

> CONSIDER INVESTING IN RESPONSIVE COMPANIES No. As he notes, the sample size is ridiculously small. It's simply too likely that he got lucky with 1 or 2 companies in his "respond" group. e.g., if he wrote these letters in the the early 90s and Buffet responded, he's immediately skewed his returns up because Buffet outperformed the market SO much in the 90s. That's likely luck, not replicable skill. Otherwise, intere…

maybe CEOs that are less negatively stressed by current affairs feel more free to answer him.. obviously this doesn't scale though
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