Read what investors, bankers and founders actually wrote.
Primary sources, not summaries of summaries: activist letters, fund reports, annual letters and founder letters, each with what is worth noticing and a link to the original on the publisher’s own site or the SEC.
Investment28
Activist letters, fund reports and investor memos: how professional investors argue for a company, a change or a view of the market.
Banking & Technology23
Annual letters from the chief executives of banks and technology companies: how the people running the firms candidates apply to explain their strategy.
Startup & Founder22
Founder letters and memos, many from IPO prospectuses: what founders said about their company when it mattered most.
Investment · Fund report · 4 Sept 2026
Longleaf Partners Fund's semi-annual report to June 2026
Southeastern Asset Management
A short, candid example of a manager arguing that a weak stretch has made its holdings cheaper, measured on price to value and price to free cash flow.
Banking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 12 May 2026
NVIDIA's fiscal 2026 letter from Jensen Huang
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA
NVIDIA's founder sets out how he thinks about the economics of AI factories and tokens, direct context for anyone covering semiconductors, data centres or technology investing.
NVDABanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 9 Apr 2026
Amazon's 2025 letter to shareholders
Andy Jassy, Amazon
A plain explanation of why heavy AI capital spending depresses free cash flow before it pays back, from a company planning about $200 billion of capex in 2026.
AMZNBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 6 Apr 2026
JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO letter to shareholders, 2025
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase
The most widely read bank CEO letter, touring the risks a banking or credit candidate is expected to discuss, from geopolitics and deficits to looser lending standards and AI.
JPMBanking & Technology · Annual letter · 23 Mar 2026
Larry Fink's 2026 annual chairman's letter to investors
Larry Fink, BlackRock
Fink's case for long-term investing and wider market participation, touching AI, self-reliance spending, private markets and tokenisation, themes asset management interviewers raise.
BLKBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 23 Mar 2026
Bank of America letter to shareholders, 2025
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America
A large universal bank's own account of its business model, lines of business and technology spending; useful context for retail, commercial or markets roles.
BACBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 20 Mar 2026
Goldman Sachs letter to shareholders, 2025 annual report
David Solomon, Goldman Sachs
How a leading investment bank explains its strategy to owners: M&A leadership, alternatives growth and an AI-led operating model, plus a sobering internship selection rate.
GSBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 16 Mar 2026
Wells Fargo CEO letter to shareholders, 2025
Charles W. Scharf, Wells Fargo
A case study in regulatory turnaround: how a large bank explains life after an asset cap and consent orders, and where it now intends to grow and compete.
WFCInvestment · Activist letter · 10 Mar 2026
Starboard Value's letter to CarMax's incoming CEO
Jeffrey Smith, Starboard Value
Shows an activist laying out a turnaround plan for a new chief executive, one operation at a time, from trade-in sourcing to a numerical SG&A target.
KMXInvestment · Shareholder letter · 6 Mar 2026
Fairfax Financial chairman's letter to shareholders, 2025 annual report
Prem Watsa, Fairfax Financial Holdings
Forty years of compounding explained by an insurer: underwriting discipline, conservatively invested float and a decentralised structure. Good preparation for insurance or value investing interviews.
FFHInvestment · Shareholder letter · 28 Feb 2026
Berkshire Hathaway's 2025 letter to shareholders, Greg Abel's first as CEO
Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway
The first letter from Buffett's successor shows how a founder-built culture is restated for a new CEO: decentralisation, capital discipline and patient use of cash.
BRK.AInvestment · Fund report · 26 Feb 2026
Sequoia Fund's discussion of its 2025 performance
Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb
Read beside the 2024 report to see how one concentrated fund explains a year ahead of the index, and why it trims winners without doubting them.
Investment · Shareholder letter · 26 Feb 2026
Markel Group's 2025 letter to shareholders
Thomas S. Gayner, Markel Group
A current view of an insurance-led holding company's model: float, conservative reserving, a four-part equity test and permanent ownership of businesses, with candour about what went wrong.
MKLBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 25 Feb 2026
Charles Schwab's 2025 letter from Rick Wurster
Rick Wurster, Charles Schwab
A brokerage chief executive draws a public line between investing and gambling, and explains how a scaled incumbent plans to respond to crypto, AI and younger clients.
SCHWStartup & Founder · Annual letter · 24 Feb 2026
Stripe's 2025 annual letter
Patrick Collison and John Collison, Stripe
A data-rich view of the internet economy from a payments processor: start-up growth speed, global-by-default businesses, stablecoins and the stages of agentic commerce.
Banking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 15 Oct 2025
Microsoft annual report letter to shareholders, fiscal 2025
Satya Nadella, Microsoft
How the largest software company presents the AI platform shift to investors: datacentre build-out, Copilot adoption and the culture meant to deliver it.
MSFTInvestment · Fund report · 29 May 2025
Oakmark Fund's semi-annual shareholder report to March 2025
Harris Associates
A quick read on a large fund's positioning in a falling half-year: about 37% in financials, about 1% in technology, and a gain while the index fell.
Investment · Activist letter · 9 Apr 2025
Gregory Goff's letter to Phillips 66 shareholders, filed by Elliott
Gregory J. Goff, Elliott Investment Management
Shows how an activist campaign recruits a respected industry veteran to argue that a mixed refining and midstream structure traps value and needs a stronger board.
PSXStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 1 Apr 2025
Circle's 2025 IPO founder's letter from Jeremy Allaire
Jeremy Allaire, Circle Internet Group
Shows a founder positioning a stablecoin issuer as regulated financial infrastructure rather than a speculative crypto business, useful for anyone weighing how fintech and bank regulation now meet.
CRCLBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 27 Mar 2025
Capital One's 2024 letter from Rich Fairbank
Rich Fairbank, Capital One
A founder explains how a card lender reinvented itself repeatedly and argues that AI will favour firms with proprietary data and modern technology, a useful frame for discussing bank strategy.
COFInvestment · Activist letter · 19 Mar 2025
Starboard Value's letter to Autodesk shareholders on margins and board change
Jeffrey Smith, Starboard Value
A clear worked example of activist margin arithmetic: headcount savings and incremental margins built up into a target you can check line by line against guidance.
ADSKInvestment · Fund report · 11 Mar 2025
Longleaf Partners Fund's annual report on 2024
Southeastern Asset Management
Shows what a concentrated equity manager reports after a year well behind the market: high cash, 17 holdings and a long-term record to weigh.
Investment · Fund report · 4 Mar 2025
Sequoia Fund's discussion of its 2024 performance
Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb
A compact case of a concentrated quality fund explaining a year behind the index, with the holdings count, turnover and position sizes to back it.
Investment · Fund report · 4 Dec 2024
Oakmark Fund's annual shareholder report for the year to September 2024
Harris Associates
Shows how a large US equity fund can post a strong year and still trail the S&P 500, and how heavily it leans on financials.
Banking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 5 Apr 2024
Morgan Stanley's 2024 shareholder letter, Ted Pick's first as chief executive
Ted Pick, Morgan Stanley
Shows how a new chief executive signals continuity to shareholders, and lays out the integrated firm model and financial targets that frame any conversation about Morgan Stanley's strategy.
MSBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 19 Mar 2024
Citigroup CEO letter to shareholders, 2023
Jane Fraser, Citigroup
A turnaround letter from a large bank operating under regulatory consent orders, showing how simplification, divestitures and return targets fit together in one restructuring story.
CInvestment · Activist letter · 18 Mar 2024
Trian's March 2024 letter to Disney shareholders
Trian Fund Management
A compact example of the case an activist makes for two board seats rather than control: performance evidence, a critique of named directors' fit, and a rebuttal of the board's defence.
DISStartup & Founder · Annual letter · 13 Mar 2024
Stripe's 2023 annual letter
Patrick Collison and John Collison, Stripe
A founder-written, data-rich annual account showing how a payments company at Stripe's scale reasons about reliability, start-up formation and investing for the long term.
Investment · Shareholder letter · 6 Mar 2024
Markel Group's 2023 letter to business partners
Thomas S. Gayner, Markel Group
It explains, in a chief executive's own words, a simple two-part method for estimating intrinsic value per share and how that estimate guides decisions to repurchase or issue shares.
Startup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 22 Feb 2024
Reddit's 2024 IPO letter from Steve Huffman
Steve Huffman, Reddit
It shows a founder of a user-built platform explaining a listing in terms of community ownership while naming advertising, commerce and data licensing as the ways the business will grow.
RDDTBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 16 Oct 2023
Microsoft fiscal 2023 letter to shareholders
Satya Nadella, Microsoft
A chief executive's own account of how Microsoft planned to compete in the generative AI platform shift of 2023, useful context for technology, equity research and strategy roles.
MSFTStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 25 Aug 2023
Klaviyo's 2023 IPO letter from its co-founders
Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen, Klaviyo
A clear account of how two founders found their product through customer conversations and built a company that was self-funded in its early years around first-party customer data.
KVYOBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 4 Apr 2023
JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO letter to shareholders, 2022
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase
A bank chief executive's real-time reading of the 2023 bank failures, explaining interest rate risk, uninsured deposits and regulation in terms any banking candidate should be able to discuss.
JPMBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 17 Mar 2023
Goldman Sachs letter to shareholders, 2022
David Solomon, Goldman Sachs
Shows a bank chief executive revisiting public targets and owning a strategic retreat from consumer banking, useful context for any conversation about Goldman Sachs's strategy.
GSBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 15 Mar 2023
BlackRock chairman's letter to investors, 2023
Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock
Written in the week Silicon Valley Bank failed, it connects banking stress, inflation and deglobalisation to how a large asset manager thinks about risk, useful for markets and asset management candidates.
BLKInvestment · Activist letter · 26 Apr 2022
Sachem Head's April 2022 letter to US Foods stockholders
Scott Ferguson, Sachem Head Capital Management
It shows how an activist turns a peer comparison into a valuation argument, linking a margin gap and a multiple discount to specific operating and governance failures.
USFDSYYBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 19 Apr 2022
Netflix's first-quarter 2022 letter to shareholders
Netflix
Shows how a subscription business explains slowing growth to investors, separating structural causes such as household penetration and account sharing from competition and macroeconomic pressure.
NFLXBanking & Technology · Founder letter · 28 Oct 2021
Mark Zuckerberg's 2021 founder's letter on becoming Meta
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms
A case study in a founder rebranding a giant company around an unproven long-term bet; read it beside later results to judge strategy and capital allocation.
METAStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 1 Oct 2021
Rivian's 2021 IPO letter from RJ Scaringe
Robert J. Scaringe, Rivian
A founder's account of abandoning an original product plan and rebuilding the strategy, useful for judging how a start-up chooses its first products and markets.
RIVNBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 15 Apr 2021
Amazon's 2020 letter to shareowners, Jeff Bezos's last as chief executive
Jeff Bezos, Amazon
A founder's attempt to put dollar figures on the value a company creates for each group it touches, alongside a frank admission about employees, in Bezos's final letter as chief executive.
AMZNStartup & Founder · Founder letter · 25 Feb 2021
Coinbase's 2021 S-1 founder letter from Brian Armstrong
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase
Shows how the founder of a volatile, regulated business sets investor expectations on cyclical results, compliance and reinvestment ahead of a direct listing rather than an IPO.
COINStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 19 Nov 2020
Roblox's 2020 S-1 letter from David Baszucki
David Baszucki, Roblox
It shows a founder treating organisational design as a product decision, running the company on the same principles that let independent studios build on its platform.
RBLXStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 16 Nov 2020
Airbnb's 2020 IPO letter from the founders
Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb
A founder letter written through a near-collapse: how Airbnb narrowed to its core, balanced its stakeholders and still reached a listing the same year.
ABNBStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 13 Nov 2020
DoorDash's 2020 IPO letter from Tony Xu
Tony Xu, DoorDash
A founder explains why a delivery app is really a bet on local commerce, and ties each operating value to a decision the company actually made, including a costly early refund.
DASHStartup & Founder · Founder letter · 25 Aug 2020
Palantir's 2020 listing letter from Alex Karp
Alex Karp, Palantir Technologies
A founder uses a listing document to take an explicit political and moral position, telling investors which customers and causes the company has chosen and why that is part of the business.
PLTRStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 15 Aug 2019
Cloudflare's 2019 IPO letter from Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn
Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn, Cloudflare
Two founders show how one pricing decision, an obsession with cost and products given away free fit together into a business model, a clear case study in platform strategy for infrastructure software.
NETStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 22 Mar 2019
Zoom's 2019 IPO letter from Eric S. Yuan
Eric S. Yuan, Zoom Video Communications
A short founder letter built on one idea, customer and employee happiness, backed by satisfaction data; useful for discussing product-led software growth.
ZMStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 1 Mar 2019
Lyft's 2019 IPO letter from its co-founders
Logan Green and John Zimmer, Lyft
It shows founders using the prospectus to set investors' expectations before listing: growth before profitability in the early days, and long-term health before the market's daily reactions.
LYFTInvestment · Activist letter · 28 Feb 2019
Starboard's February 2019 letter to Bristol-Myers Squibb shareholders on the Celgene deal
Jeffrey C. Smith, Starboard Value
A rare activist case against a merger built on product economics, showing how patent expiry, pipeline risk and diligence timing can be weighed against a headline deal.
BMYCELGInvestment · Activist letter · 7 May 2018
Elliott Management's letter to the athenahealth board proposing a take-private (May 2018)
Jesse Cohn, Elliott Investment Management
Shows an activist turning into a bidder: the case against a company's public-market record, followed by the price, premium, financing and diligence terms of a take-private proposal.
Startup & Founder · Founder letter · 28 Feb 2018
Spotify's 2018 listing letter from Daniel Ek
Daniel Ek, Spotify
It shows a founder explaining a two-sided marketplace through the earnings of its suppliers, the creators, and committing to long-term thinking ahead of a direct listing.
SPOTInvestment · Activist letter · 16 Oct 2017
JANA Partners' 2017 letter to EQT stockholders opposing the Rice acquisition
Barry Rosenstein, JANA Partners
A clear model of how a shareholder tests merger synergies against the premium paid, and of why the currency used to pay for a deal matters as much as its strategic logic.
EQTInvestment · Activist letter · 31 Jul 2017
Trian's July 2017 letter to Procter & Gamble shareholders
Trian Fund Management
It shows how an activist builds a board case from competitive evidence, using one acquired brand's lost share and a cost programme's flat results to argue for a single seat.
PGBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 12 Apr 2017
Amazon's 2016 letter to shareholders (Day 1)
Jeff Bezos, Amazon
The classic statement on how large companies avoid decline: customer obsession, scepticism of proxies, embracing trends and fast decisions. Often cited in tech interviews.
AMZNInvestment · Shareholder letter · 10 Mar 2017
Fairfax Financial's 2016 letter to shareholders
V. Prem Watsa, Fairfax Financial Holdings
An unusually candid account of a defensive hedging programme from start to finish: what it cost, why it was kept for years, and what changed the decision to remove it.
Startup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 26 May 2016
Twilio's 2016 IPO letter from Jeff Lawson
Jeff Lawson, Twilio
It shows how a developer-first founder explains a platform business model and a bottom-up route to customers to public investors who may never have written code.
TWLOInvestment · Activist letter · 4 May 2016
Elliott's May 2016 letter to the board of CDK Global
Jesse Cohn, Elliott Investment Management
It shows how an activist values a spin-off that was never run as a standalone company, using a direct competitor's margins and a leverage target to build a price target.
CDKStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 9 Nov 2015
Atlassian's 2015 IPO letter from the founders
Michael Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, Atlassian
A rare IPO letter from a company that had never raised external financing, explaining a product-led model with no quota-carrying sales force and a deliberately long-term view of growth.
TEAMStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 14 Oct 2015
Square's 2015 IPO note from Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey, Square (now Block)
A founder's case that fairness and simplicity can be a strategy, showing how pricing and settlement choices that carried existential risk became the foundation of a payments business.
SQBanking & Technology · Founder letter · 10 Aug 2015
G is for Google: the letter announcing Alphabet
Larry Page, Google (now Alphabet)
Explains why Google became a holding company: separating the core business from long-shot ventures for focus, accountability and clearer reporting.
GOOGLStartup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 14 Apr 2015
Shopify's 2015 IPO letter from Tobi Lütke
Tobi Lütke, Shopify
A merchant-first founder letter that explains platform ecosystems and why a company might deliberately give up near-term revenue.
SHOPInvestment · Activist letter · 15 Jul 2014
Starboard Value's letter to the Darden Restaurants board (July 2014)
Jeffrey C. Smith, Starboard Value
Shows how an activist builds a proxy-contest case from value destruction, relative share performance and a sum-of-the-parts multiple analysis of what remains.
DRIInvestment · Activist letter · 8 Feb 2013
Southeastern Asset Management's letter to the Dell board (February 2013)
O. Mason Hawkins and G. Staley Cates, Southeastern Asset Management
A worked sum-of-the-parts valuation and leveraged recapitalisation case from a large holder opposing a management-backed buyout, directly relevant to take-private and fairness analysis.
Investment · Shareholder letter · 25 Feb 2012
Berkshire Hathaway's 2011 letter to shareholders
Warren E. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
It sets out, in plain arithmetic, when buybacks create value and why Buffett measures risk by loss of purchasing power rather than volatility, two ideas at the centre of capital allocation.
Startup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 1 Feb 2012
Facebook's 2012 IPO letter from Mark Zuckerberg (The Hacker Way)
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook (now Meta Platforms)
Zuckerberg's IPO letter sets out mission-first reasoning and the Hacker Way culture, and why the company says it earns money to build services rather than the reverse.
METABanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 24 Oct 2011
Netflix's third-quarter 2011 letter to shareholders
Reed Hastings and David Wells, Netflix
A rare example of a chief executive explaining in writing exactly what went wrong with a pricing decision, useful for anyone studying subscription economics or how companies communicate in a crisis.
NFLXBanking & Technology · Shareholder letter · 23 Mar 2009
JPMorgan Chase letter to shareholders, 2008
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase
A first-hand account of the 2008 crisis from the bank that absorbed Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, with a clear list of root causes.
JPMInvestment · Shareholder letter · 6 Mar 2009
Fairfax Financial's 2008 chairman's letter to shareholders
Prem Watsa, Fairfax Financial Holdings
Shows how an insurer's investment team paid for years of hedges and credit protection, then harvested them in the 2008 crisis and redeployed into stocks and bonds.
FFHInvestment · Shareholder letter · 27 Feb 2009
Berkshire Hathaway's 2008 letter to shareholders
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
A first-hand account of the 2008 crisis from an investor buying through it, with candid mistakes and sharp warnings on derivatives, history-based models and the pricing of risk.
BRK.ACOPGSInvestment · Shareholder letter · 13 Feb 2009
Brookfield Asset Management's 2008 letter to shareholders
J. Bruce Flatt, Brookfield Asset Management
Explains how an owner of real assets financed itself to survive a credit crisis, and how it used that position to buy back shares and assets cheaply.
BNInvestment · Shareholder letter · 28 Feb 2006
Berkshire Hathaway's 2005 letter to shareholders
Warren E. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
Its parable of the Gotrocks family is among the clearest explanations of why fees and trading reduce what investors as a group can earn from the businesses they own.
Startup & Founder · IPO founder letter · 29 Apr 2004
Google's 2004 IPO founders' letter, "An Owner's Manual"
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google (now Alphabet)
The founding text on dual-class shares, refusing earnings guidance and funding long-shot bets; essential background for founder-control debates in IPOs.
GOOGLStartup & Founder · Shareholder letter · 1997
Amazon's 1997 letter to shareholders
Jeff Bezos, Amazon
Amazon's first shareholder letter sets out a long-term, cash-flow-first philosophy that still frames how investors judge high-growth companies.
AMZN
What the funds own
Every fund letter here links to that manager’s 13F holdings: read the argument, then see the position.
Hedge fund holdingsWhat the bankers showed the board
Adviser presentations filed with going-private deals: the other primary source behind a transaction.
Banker board booksL3VLUP does not host these documents. Each belongs to its author or publisher and is linked where they published it; the notes are L3VLUP’s reading of it, not a summary approved by the author.