The Archive

Investors, Founders, and Operators (IFOs)

Hi everyone! This is a special edition of A Letter a Day. Rather than sharing a letter as usual, I wanted to tell you a little bit about why I started this project and which investors, founders, and operators (IFOs) you can expect to receive letters from. 

Early in my career, Stan Druckenmiller told me that the best way to understand an industry is to look at every company in it. I’ve found that this (mostly) works for people too. To understand people, read everything they’ve published, and listen to every talk they’ve given. It’s very much a bottoms-up approach to forming a top-down view.

This method can work for anyone—I’ve learnt about investing styles, asset classes, industries, and more using this method. Many of my friends expressed interest in doing the same, but the unfortunate reality is that most people don’t have the time or willingness to seek out and read this volume of material. So I started sharing individual memos and speeches with friends to help out. That evolved into the newsletter you are reading. 

A Letter a Day is both a tasting menu and a launchpad. You can expect a letter from a different IFO each edition, which will help you learn more about individual IFOs, but also (I hope) serve as an inspiration to dig deeper into IFOs that resonate with you. 

Without further ado, below is a partial archive (full thing is ~3x), roughly categorized, of some of the IFOs you can expect to hear from in this newsletter.

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The Archives*

*Names subject to be added at any time without updating exhibits. Added names italicized.

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Public Markets

Activist

• Bill Ackman - (Compilation)

• Carson Block

• Jim Chanos

• Ryan Cohen

• Jesse Cohn

• David Einhorn

• Scott Ferguson

• Connor Haley

• Chris Hohn

• Carl Icahn - (Compilation)

• Dan Loeb - (Compilation / Biography)

• Nelson Peltz

• T Boone Pickens

• Jon Pollock

• Fahmi Quadir

• Clifton Robbins

• Paul Singer

• Jeff Smith

• Jeff Ubben

• David Webb

Growth

• Adarsh Battu

• Will Danoff

• Henry Ellenbogen

• Philip Fisher

• Byrne Hobart

• Ben Jacobs

• Abigail Johnson

• Dennis Lynch

• Ian McKinnon

• Bill Miller - (Compilation)

• Thomas Rowe Price

• Tom Purcell

• Terry Smith

• Marc Stad

• Dan Sundheim

• Felix Tan

• Nick Train

• Gordon Tsai

• Herb Wertheim

• Lei Zhang

Tiger

• Lee Ainslie

• Dwight Anderson

• Bob Bishop

• Rob Citrone

• Chase Coleman

• David Gerstenhaber

• John Griffin

• Andreas Halvorsen

• Martin Hughes

• Bill Hwang

• Glen Kacher

• Michael Kelly

• Philippe Laffont

• Stephen Mandel

• Roberto Mignone

• Dan Morehead

• Robert Pitts

• Robert Pohly

• Julian Robertson

• Chris Shumway

• Arnold Snider

Macro

• John Arnold

• Louis Bacon

• Dmitry Balyasny

• Barton Biggs

• Peter Borish

• Steve Cohen

• Ray Dalio

• Mike Green

• Alan Howard

• Paul Tudor Jones

• Bruce Kovner

• Michael Marcus

• Mike Novogratz

• John Paulson

• Michael Platt

• Chris Rokos

• Martin Sosnoff

• Michael Steinhardt

• Jeff Talpins

• David Tepper

• Boaz Weinstein

Soros

• Keith Anderson

• Betsy Battle

• Josh Berkowitz

• Scott Bessent

• Bob Bishop

• Ted Burdick

• Stan Druckenmiller

• William Ehrman

• Dawn Fitzpatrick

• Jacob Goldfield

• Duncan Hennes

• Sheldon Kasowitz

• Neal Moszkowski

• Victor Niederhoffer

• Colm O'Shea

• Stephen Plant

• Allan Raphael

• Nicholas Roditi

• Jim Rogers

• George Soros - (Compilation)

• Robert Soros

• Ramez Sousou

• Randy Yuen

• John Zwaanstra

Credit

• Malindi Colyer

• Tony Davis

• Kipp deVeer

• Benoit Durteste

• Steve Feinberg

• Josh Friedman

• Bennett Goodman

• John Grayken

• Bill Gross

• Jeff Gundlach

• Michael Hintze

• Mitch Julis

• Scott Kapnick

• Bruce Karsh

• Jonathan Lavine

• Howard Marks - (Compilation)

• John Meriwether

• Steve Moyer

• Bruce Richards

• John Zito

Quant

• Elena Ambrosiadou

• Jack Bogle

• David Booth

• Ben Eiffert

• Izzy Englander

• Rob Granieri

• Ken Griffin

• Ray Iwanowski

• David Kabiller

• Andrew Lo

• Paul Marshall

• Philip Maymin

• Bob Merton

• John Overdeck

• Tim Reynolds

• David Shaw

• David Siegel

• Jim Simons

• Rex Sinquefield

• Ed Thorp

• Jeff Yass

Value

• David Abrams

• Chuck Akre

• Tim Bliss

• Warren Buffett - (Compilation)

• Michael Burry - (Compilation)

• Drew Cohen

• Todd Combs

• Leon Cooperman

• Peter Cundill

• Shelby Davis

• Bruce Flatt

• Ben Graham

• Joel Greenblatt - (Compilation)

• Bruce Greenwald - (Compilation)

• Tom Kamei

• Seth Klarman - (Compilation)

• Michael Larson

• Leon Levy

• Lu Li - (Compilation)

• George Loening

• Peter Lynch - (Compilation)

• Charlie Munger - (Compilation)

• Ryan O'Connor

• Andrew Pastor

• Richard Rainwater

• Francois Rochon

• Tom Russo

• Walter Schloss

• Lou Simpson

• Nick Sleep

• Marty Whitman

• Ted Weschler

Venture Capital

The Drapers

• William Henry Draper Jr.

• Bill Draper

• Tim Draper

• Adam Draper

• Jesse Draper

OGs

• Peter Crisp

• Tommy Davis Jr.

• Georges Doriot

• Bill Elfers

• Paul Ferri

• Dan Gregory

• Pitch Johnson

• Dick Kramlich

• Charles Lea

• Burt McMurty

• Arthur Rock - (Compilation / Biography)

• Laurance Rockefeller

Sequoia

• Roelof Botha

• Sameer Ghandi

• Jim Goetz

• Matt Huang

• Mark Kvamme

• Pierre Lamond

• Doug Leone

• Alfred Lin

• Mike Moritz - (Compilation)

• Neil Shen

• Mark Stevens

• Don Valentine - (Compilation)

Kleiner Perkins

• Steve Anderson

• Brook Byers

• Frank Caufield

• John Doerr

• E. Floyd Kvamme

• Vinod Khosla - (Compilation)

• Eugene Kleiner

• Randy Komisar

• Ray Lane

• Aileen Lee

• Mary Meeker - (Compilation)

• Thomas Perkins

Benchmark

• Scott Belsky

• Matt Cohler

• Michael Eisenberg

• Peter Fenton

• Miles Grimshaw

• Bill Gurley

• Kevin Harvey

• Bob Kagle

• Mitch Lasky - (Compilation)

• Andy Rachleff

• Sarah Tavel - (Compilation)

• Eric Vishria

Seed

• Cyan Banister - (Compilation / Biography)

• Jason Calacanis

• Ron Conway

• Mark Cuban - (Compilation)

• Steve Jurvetson - (Compilation / Biography)

• Mike Maples Jr

• Matt Mazzeo

• Ann Miura Ko

• Jeremy Liew - (Compilation)

• Chris Sacca - (Compilation)

• Fred Wilson - (Compilation)

• Kathy Xu

New Models

• Marc Andreessen - (Compilation)

• Reece Duca

• Paul Graham

• Peter Hebert

• Ben Horowitz - (Compilation)

• Reed Jobs

• Jessica Livingston - (Compilation)

• Jeff Lu

• Bob Nelsen

• Alexis Ohanian

• Sam Pullara

• Naval Ravikant

• Mike Speiser

• Josh Wolfe - (Compilations: Part One; Part Two)

Other

• Logan Bartlett

• Brett Bivens

• Jim Breyer

• Michael Brown

• Alex Clayton

• Malindi Colyer

• Jackson Dahl

• Satish Dharmaraj

• Dixon Doll

• Lee Fixel

• Kirsten Green

• Kyle Harrison

• Paul Kedrosky

• Josh Kushner

• Ashton Kutcher

• Jeremy Levine - (Compilation)

• Richard Liu - (Compilation / Biography)

• Joe Lonsdale

• Paul Madera

• Yuri Milner

• Evan Moore

• Ho Nam - (Compilation)

• Ian Osbourne

• Danny Rimer - (Compilation)

• Scott Sandell

• Bo Shao

• Brian Singerman

• David Sze

• Hans Tung

• Bradley Tusk

• Sheel Tyle - (Compilation)

• Peter Wagner

• Rob Ward

• George Zachary

Private Equity

KKR

• Joseph Bae

• Nick Forstmann

• Edward Gilhuly

• Jerome Kohlberg

• Henry Kravis

• Scott Nuttall

• George Roberts

• Pete Stavros

• Nate Taylor

Blackstone

• Larry Fink

• Mark Gallogly

• Jon Gray

• J Tomilson Hill

• Tony James

• Sami Mnaymneh

• Henry Silverman

• Steve Schwarzman - (Compilation)

• Byron Wien

Apollo

• Leon Black

• Craig Cogut

• Josh Harris

• Scott Kleinman

• Matt Nord

• Tony Ressler

• Marc Rowan

• David Sambur

• Jim Zelter

Silver Lake

• Mike Bingle

• Jim Davidson

• Egon Durban

• Kenneth Hao

• Glenn Hutchins

• Roger McNamee

• Greg Mondre

• Josh Raffaelli

• David Roux

Other

• Robert Bass

• David Bonderman

• Orlando Bravo

• Peter Brooke

• Bill Conway

• Asher Edelman

• Jose Feliciano

• Stanley Golder

• James Goldsmith

• Warren Hellman

• Conni Jonsson

• Kirk Kerkorian

• Michael Kim

• Thomas Lee

• Jorge Paulo Lemann

• Jonathan Nelson

• Alan Patricof

• Lionel Pincus

• Victor Posner

• Joe Rice

• David Rubenstein

• Gerry Schwartz

• Weijian Shah

• Harold Simmons

• Michael Smith

• Robert Smith

• Tom Steyer

• Carl Thoma

• Mitt Romney

• Adam Stein

• Saul Steinberg

Founders

M&A

• Barry Diller

• Tilman Fertitta

• Jack Henry

• Nick Howley

• Wayne Huizenga

• Bradley Jacobs

• Joe Liemandt

• Mark Leonard - (Compilation / Deep Dive)

• John Malone - (Compilation)

• Joseph McKinney

• Charles Moomy

• Albert Nahmad

• George Roper

• Henry Singleton

Real Estate

• Tom Barrack

• Donald Bren

• Rick Caruso

• Gerald Chan

• Hugh Grosvener

• Shau-kee Lee

• Ka-shing Li

• Ed Roski

• Stephen Ross

• Melvin Simon

• Peter Woo

• Yajun Wu

• Huiyan Yang

• Sam Zell

Retail

• Sheldon Adelson

• Arthur Blank - (Compilation)

• Jeff Brotman - (Compilation)

• Joe Coulombe

• Jimmy Donaldson

• Chuck Feeney

• Phil Knight - (Compilation)

• Bernard Marcus - (Compilation)

• Peiman Raf

• Howard Schultz - (Compilation)

• Jim Sinegal - (Compilation)

• Harry Snyder

• S. Cathy Truett

• Sam Walton - (Compilation)

Pre-2000s Tech

• Andy Bechtolsheim

• Marc Benioff - (Compilation)

• Jeff Bezos - (Compilation)

• Sergey Brin - (Compilation)

• Nolan Bushnell

• Scott Cook

• Wilf Corrigan

• Michael Dell

• David Duffield

• Larry Ellison

• Bill Gates - (Compilation)

• Reed Hastings - (Compilation)

• Tony Hsieh

• Jensen Huang - (Compilation)

• Steve Jobs (Apple) - (Compilation)

• Jeffrey Katzenberg

• Vinod Khosla - (Compilation)

• Sandy Lerner

• John McAfee

• Gordon Moore - (Compilation)

• David Ogilvy

• Ken Olsen

• Pierre Omidyar - (Compilation)

• David Packard

• Larry Page - (Compilation)

• TJ Rodgers

• Martine Rothblatt

• Tim Sweeney

• John Warnock

• Steve Wozniak

• Jerry Yang

Post-2000s Tech

• Brian Acton

• Sam Altman

• Dave Baszucki

• Tony Bates

• Nate Blecharczyk

• Aneel Bhusri

• Stewart Butterfield

• Brian Chesky

• John Collison

• Patrick Collison

• Jack Dorsey - (Compilation)

• Dylan Field

• Janus Friis

• Joe Gebbia

• James Hong

• Will Jack

• Travis Kalanick

• Alex Karp

• Jan Koum

• Moxie Marlinspike

• Jim McKelvey

• Elon Musk - (Compilation)

• Robert Pera

• Joe Philleo

• Mark Pincus

• Evan Spiegel

• Kevin Systrom

• Glen Tullman

• Tony Xu

• Tracy Young

• Eric Yuan

• Mark Zuckerberg - (Compilation / Deep Dive)

Non-US

• Len Blavatnik

• Morris Chang - (Compilation)

• Jack Kent Cooke

• Yongping Duan

• Pavel Durov

• Daniel Ek

• Enzo Ferrari

• Thierry Hermes

• Colin Huang

• Cristina Junqueira

• Bom Kim - (Compilation / Deep Dive)

• Byung-chul Lee

• Tobi Lutke

• Jack Ma - (Compilation / Deep Dive)

• Pony Ma - (Compilation / Deep Dive)

• Amancio Ortega

• Francois Pinault

• Anton Rupert

• Eugene Schueller

• Carlos Slim

• Masayoshi Son

• Patrick Soon-Shiong

• Jamsetji Tata

• Roy Thomson

• David Velez

• An Wang

• Frank Wang

• Chris Xu

• Tadashi Yanai - (Compilation / Deep Dive)

• Yiming Zhang

OGs

• PT Barnum

• Rose Blumkin

• Samuel Brannan

• Asa Griggs Candler

• Andrew Carnegie

• Walt Disney

• George Eastman

• Thomas Edison

• Sherman Fairchild

• Henry Ford

• John Paul Getty

• William Hearst

• Henry Heinz

• Conrad Hilton

• Dee Hock

• Howard Hughes

• Ken Iverson

• PJ Kennedy

• Fred Koch

• George Merck

• JP Morgan

• Henry Phipps Jr

• John Rockefeller

• Seymour Schulich

• Charles Schwab

• Samuel Slater

• Nikola Tesla

• Cornelius Vanderbilt

• Madam CJ Walker

• Thomas Watson

Operators (Non-founding executives)

The Arnaults

• Bernard Arnault - (Compilation)

• Delphine Arnault

• Antoine Arnault

• Alexandre Arnault

• Frederic Arnault

• Jean Arnault

Consumer

• Rosalind Brewer

• Dan Burke

• Steve Forbes

• Fabrizio Freda - (Compilation)

• Gary Friedman

• Bob Goizueta

• Brian Goldner - (Compilation)

• Katharine Graham

• Tinker Hatfield

• Bob Iger - (Compilation / Biography)

• Satoru Iwata - (Compilation / Deep Dive)

• Craig Jelinek

• Hubert Joy

• Don Keough

• Jason Kilar

• Bobby Kotick

• Ray Kroc

• Ken Kutaragi

• Leonard Lauder

• Karen Lynch

• Neil McElroy

• Judith McGrath

• Tom Murphy

• Indra Nooyi - (Compilation)

• Marta Ortega

• Henk Rogers

• Harry Sonneborn

• Tom Taylor - (Compilation / Deep Dive)

• Tracey Travis

• Joey Wat

• Andrew Wilson

• Anna Wintour

Tech

• Nikesh Arora

• John Carter

• Safra Catz

• John Chambers

• Susan Decker

• Brad Garlinghouse

• Lou Gerstner - (Compilation)

• Dave Goldberg

• Andy Grove - (Compilation)

• Seong-sook Han

• Steve Jobs (Pixar) - (Compilation)

• Dara Khosrowshahi

• Tim Koogle

• Roshni Malhotra

• Sanjay Mehrotra

• John McMahon

• Shantanu Narayan

• Jo-ann Olsovsky

• John Riccitiello

• Gwynne Shotwell

• Frank Slootman

• Lisa Su

• Jane Sun

• Hock Tan

• Lip-Bu Tan

• Joe Tsai

• Padmasree Warrior

• Peter Wennik

• Meg Whitman - (Compilation)

• Kelly Zhang

• Allen Zhang

AFATMAN

• Steve Ballmer

• Seamus Blackley

• Andrew Bozworth

• Bob Brunner

• Paul Buchheit

• Bill Campbell

• Tim Cook

• Joy Covey

• Tony Fadell

• Bob Gaskins

• Charlotte Guyman

• Amy Hood

• Jony Ive

• Andy Jassy

• Mike Maples Sr

• Mike Markkula

• Nathan Mhyrvold

• Satya Nadella

• Sundar Pichai

• Ruth Porat

• Jeff Raikes

• Thomas Reardon

• Dan Rose

• Blake Ross

• Sheryl Sandberg

• Ted Sarandos

• Eric Schmidt

• Charles Simonyi

• Steven Sinofsky

• Joel Spolsky

• Patricia Stonesifer

• Bret Victor

• Susan Wojcicki

Sports

• Philip Anschutz

• Todd Boehly

• Usain Bolt

• Tom Brady

• Jerry Buss

• Stephen Curry

• Wes Edens

• Roger Federer

• Dan Gilbert

• Wayne Gretzky

• Eileen Gu

• George Halas

• Sam Hinkie

• Peter Holt

• Ariel Hsing

• Lebron James

• Michael Jordan

• Eliud Kipchoge

• Robert Kraft

• Stan Kroenke

• Jeffrey Lurie

• Virginia McCaskey

• Lionel Messi

• Joe Montana

• Michael Phelps

• Emma Raducanu

• Milos Raonic

• Cristiano Ronaldo

• Juju Smith-Schuster

• Fred Smith

• George Steinbrenner

• Ion Tiriac

• Ted Turner

• Serena Williams

• Tiger Woods

Film

• Kurosawa Akira

• Wes Anderson

• Kathryn Bigelow

• Jason Blum

• Joon-ho Bong

• James Cameron

• Charlie Chaplin

• Damian Chazelle

• Kaige Chen

• Francis Ford Coppola

• Richard Curtis

• Clint Eastwood

• Kevin Feige

• David Fincher

• Alfred Hitchcock

• John Hughes

• Alejandro Inarritu

• Peter Jackson

• Stanley Kubrick

• Richard Linklater

• George Lucas

• Hayao Miyazaki

• Christopher Nolan

• Sid Sheinberg

• Makoto Shinkai

• Martin Scorsese

• Steven Spielberg

• Quentin Tarantino

• Guillermo del Toro

• Kar-wai Wong

• Yimou Zhang

Other

• Bill Allen

• Mukesh Ambani

• Ajay Banga

• Jim Barksdale

• Gail Boudreaux

• James Burke

• Stephen Burke

• Wesley Bush

• Kenneth Chenault

• Charles Coffin

• Jamie Dimon - (Compilation)

• Hunter Harrison

• Marillyn Hewson

• Lee Iacocca

• Reginald Jones

• Peter Kaufman

• Arthur Levinson - (Compilation)

• William McKnight

• Amin Nasser

• Jay Pritzker

• Dieter Rams

• Gina Rinehart

• Alfred Sloan

• Lars Sorensen - (Compilation)

• Carol Tome

• Roy Vagelos - (Compilation)

• David Wallerstein

• Kathy Warden

• Jack Welch - (Compilation)

• Nicke Widyawati

• Andrew Witty

• Linda Yaccarino

• Dieter Zetsche - (Compilation)

Talent Hubs

Fairchild Semi

• Gil Amelio

• Julius Blank

• Ron Brachman

• Wilf Corrigan

• Victor Grinich

• Andy Grove

• Jean Hoerni

• Eugene Kleiner

• Pierre Lamond

• Jay Last

• Gordon Moore - (Compilation)

• Bob Noyce

• Sheldon Roberts

• Jerry Sanders

• Charles Sporck

• Don Valentine - (Compilation)

PayPal

• Scott Banister

• Roelof Botha

• Steve Chen

• Reid Hoffman

• Jawed Karim

• Max Levchin

• Dave McClure

• Elon Musk

• Luke Nosek

• Keith Rabois

• David Sacks

• Premal Shah

• Russel Simmons

• Jeremy Stoppelman

• Peter Thiel - (Compilation)

• Yishan Wong

IAS

• Neil Chriss

• Abraham Flexner

• Mark Heising

• Fred Hu

• Nancy MacMillan

• David Marquardt

• Narayana Murthy

• Jonathan Nelson

• John Overdeck

• Nancy Peretsman

• Sandra Peterson

• Jorn Rausing

• David Rubenstein

• Charles Simonyi

• Mike Speiser

• Peter Svennilson

• Wendell Weeks

SFI

• Gary Bengier

• Ross Buhrdorf

• John Chisholm

• Katherine Collins

• Fred Dotzler

• Bill Gurley - (Compilation)

• Mari Kooi

• Michael Mauboussin - (Compilation)

• Robert Maxfield

• Cormac McCarthy

• Ian McKinnon

• Bill Miller - (Compilation)

• Darla Moore

• Jerry Murdock

• Gerry Ohrstrom

• Pierre Omidyar - (Compilation)

• James Pallotta

• Sam Peters

• Jim Rutt

• Toby Shannan

• Bill Slick

• Graham Spencer

• Vijay Ullal

• DA Wallach

• David Weinberger

• Josh Wolfe - (Compilations: Part One; Part Two)

Families

• Ambani

• Arnault

• Barrymore

• Bettencourt

• Cargill-MacMillan

• Draper

• du Pont

• Hilton

• Kennedy

• Koch

• Lee

• Louis-Dreyfus

• Mars

• Morgan

• Pritzker

• Quandt

• Rockefeller

• Rothschild

• Tata

• Thomson

• Vanderbilt

• Wallenberg

• Walton

• Warburg

• Whitney

To be categorized (Partial List)

• Crypto

  • Satoshi Nakamoto

  • Bryan Pellegrino (Compilation / Biography)

  • Peruggia

• Magician

  • Raymond Teller

  • Penn Jillette

• Company

  • Ford

  • IBM - (Compilation)

• Anthology

  • Covid Memos - (Compilation)

  • Graduation Speeches - (Compilation)

  • Intro to Bitcoin - (Compilation)

• Teachers

  • Jack McDonald

• Music

  • Shawn Carter (Jay-Z)

• Media