I Write Letters to CEOs • Hacker News Board

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#71

Post by somebadguy » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:11 AM UTC

canoebuilder wrote: post #60

NikolaNovak wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am guessing it was a snarky comment on the lack of capitalization, which I would not have noticed otherwise.

Call it snark if you will, but it is intelligent, perceptive, witty snark, a rare combination. (check out that username) vouched I think it's perfectly reasonable to have people socially pressure others to keep to the agreed upon conventions of communication. (It's kind of what this place is known for.) If someone wants to do it in a funny way, all the better. Humor wins hearts and minds. I don't understand the ignor…

What a clumsy and pompous post. English is clearly not your first language.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#72

Post by magnat » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:15 AM UTC

bunkydoo wrote: post #70

I write letters to many different people, none really respond showing me that this is a thoughtful yet ineffective means of reaching out to people nowadays... Interesting thoughts nonetheless

Are you a nigerian prince?

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#73

Post by kickling » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:26 AM UTC

discordance wrote: post #48

itronitron wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of when I read about Steve Jobs' having to be dressed up as a CEO for the cover of some business magazine in the '80's (Fortune, or Inc. I think). I distinctly remember as a young person seeing that magazine and thinking he's some conventional business dude. So of course I, and probably everyone else, assumed that to be at an innovative high-tech company you needed to be a conventional business dude.…

Sounds similar to the theory that to be a successful CEO you need to be an asshole

Speaking of Steve Jobs..

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#74

Post by erikb » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:37 AM UTC

This looks like a lot of fantasy confidence. For instance, even if you are quite rich, it's unlikely that Colgate-Palmolive would consider you really an "investor". And of course if you write something to the CEO his 10+ PR team will respond to you, maybe even with something that is signed by the CEO. But do you really think the CEO sits down to discuss shower thoughts about product ideas with you?

If you think that would make sense at all, you don't understand how big companies work. The big company is in the later phases of a snowball effect. It's a huge thing that rolls by itself and can't really be redirected, stopped or sped up by anyone. A CEO knows that. He's mostly concerned about internal politics and external representation. He's not really doing anything like develop new products. Companies like Apple that move from one big product line to another are very, very rare.

So, what you get is a PR letter that can contain some insights into their current strategy. But nothing of real value. It's unlikely that such a response contains anything one could learn.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#75

Post by erikb » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:38 AM UTC

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…

I love how you simply declined the offer. What a balsy move.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#76

Post by erikb » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:41 AM UTC

vortico wrote: post #37

Because of this post, CEOs around the world are receiving 3x emails today. Haha, just kidding. It's actually the opposite. The reason CEOs respond is because they get much fewer emails from customers than you'd imagine. They get their typical solicitations, internal meeting emails, external business discussions, but the customer emails can be interesting and more insightful than any internal letter could be. If you p…

This is like the legend that pretty women don't get approached by men.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#77

Post by FooBarWidget » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:41 AM UTC

aantix wrote: post #59

elygre wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn’t it be?

Because you don't have their consent.

The GDPR defines multiple legal grounds on which you are allowed to process personal data (such as collecting an email address for contacting). Consent is only one legal ground. Another one is "legitimate interest", which a lot of salespeople will use in order to find prospects. However the recipient is allowed to say "not interested, don't contact me again" and you'll have to comply.

Furthermore the GDPR does not apply to small-scale, ad-hoc, personal situations. Contacting a CEO as a customer is fine. Your personal phone's address book is fine. So is keeping a list of attendees of your birthday party. But wearing a camera on your body all day and recording everything and running face recognition on the video, even if you do it for personal reasons, is not ok.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#78

Post by mrep » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:56 AM UTC

xster wrote: post #44

vortico wrote: post #37

Because of this post, CEOs around the world are receiving 3x emails today. Haha, just kidding. It's actually the opposite. The reason CEOs respond is because they get much fewer emails from customers than you'd imagine. They get their typical solicitations, internal meeting emails, external business discussions, but the customer emails can be interesting and more insightful than any internal letter could be. If you p…

How does one even discover the email addresses of CEOs (or board members)? It's not like they're searchable online and guessing common formats only gets you so far.

Google search or guess. Jeff Bezos email is jeff@amazon.com if I recall correctly.

I also emailed Paul Graham 3 years ago thanking him for one his blogs that ironically led me to not pursuing the startup path and he responded to it.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#79

Post by coupdejarnac » Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:58 AM UTC

When I was in 4th grade in the '80s, I wrote a letter to the CEO of Atari. I was a stockholder(maybe 5 shares, ha), and I was concerned that Atari could do a few things to make their games more enjoyable. I received a really nice letter in return that addressed my concerns, and a bunch of promotional material was included. In retrospect I wish I had written more letters and perhaps built up correspondence with someone high profile.

Re: I Write Letters to CEOs

#80

Post by krmmalik » Thu, May 31, 2018, 8:13 AM UTC

I didn't write a letter but I did write emails to executives at Blackberry and Nikon. I felt I had strategies that could help them. I never got a response. So I'm wondering what it is this guy is doing that is promoting a response. Maybe it is just the fact that it's a letter and not an email, or the letters are written by someone in the PR department and not the actual CEO? I would love to reach out to CEOs and have an actual conversation with them even if my ideas are way off the mark.