The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

When a Rival Skips Your Platform, Build the Data Case First

Before you negotiate, know exactly how much the other side needs you — and make sure your team does too.

Jamie Rosenberg to team, June 22, 2018: "Just wanted to check in on next steps with respect to Fortnite. I think we need to call a small internal meeting as soon as possible... my interest is in seeing some fleshed out thinking and talking points on: Compromises/Tradeoffs with their approach along the following vectors: User experience; 'Health' risks associated with security & updatability; Billing/FOP coverage, and why certain FOPs are more important on mobile than on PC/Web; Marketing/Promotional support; Availability of Google ads platforms (do we accept ads for sideloaded apps?); Technical support; Compliance/Regulatory/Family Fraud, etc."

Paul Gennai added: "Even if we can't share partner specific data, it would be useful to get some data points on how many installs even the large players get when they choose to distribute off of Play. The Amazon App Store would be a good example... Also, would be good to get the latest numbers on what % of devices have unknown sources turned off by country... to highlight that there'll be large hurdles for distribution, unless they were to get preloaded (which is a very long game). She can also give the latest stats on % of malware coming from off-Play installs."

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Court Exhibit
In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation (Epic v. Google)
3:21-md-02981 (CAND), Doc. 887-4, filed 2023-12-21
June 23, 2018
Public domain
View the primary source →