A monthly CEO letter to employees is a written note from the CEO to the whole company on a fixed rhythm. A proven structure has six sections: a market observation with its consequence, wins, recurring numbers, what did not work, people, and one ask. It runs 600 to 900 words, and the rhythm carries its authority.
What is a monthly CEO letter to employees?
A monthly CEO letter to employees is a written note from the CEO to the whole company, sent on a fixed rhythm, in the CEO's own voice. It says what the CEO sees in the market, what the company achieved and missed, and what comes next.
I learned the value of the format as a reader. At Wix, Avishai Abrahami, the company's co-founder and CEO, sent emails to everyone in the company about what he saw in the market: what was changing outside, what it meant for us, and how he read it. I read every one of them, and I still remember them.
Mathilde Collin, co-founder and CEO of Front, ran the same discipline at a weekly rhythm. For four years she sent one email to the whole company each week, with the same structure and at the same time, and did not miss one. She has put the writing time at about an hour.
The method is simple. Authority inside a company forms the way it forms outside: through what people read from you, arriving when they expect it.
Why should a CEO write to employees in addition to all-hands meetings?
An all-hands meeting has its place, since the whole company gets the same message simultaneously. But spoken words pass once. A letter gets read, reread and forwarded to the person who missed the meeting.
Writing also forces a decision about what you think before you say it. A paragraph that falls apart on the page was rarely clear on stage either.
Internal email also gets read. PoliteMail's 2026 benchmark puts the average open rate of internal email at 66% and the share of recipients who click a link at 7%. The letter gets opened, and the body has to carry everything, because few readers will click through.
What should a CEO letter to employees contain?
A structure that works well has six sections, in the same order every month. The order follows attention: what you see first, what the company did next, what you ask of the reader last. Sections that do not fit a company can go. What matters is that readers find the same shape every time.
- The market as I see it: a single observation and what follows from it for the company.
- Wins: a handful of concrete results from the month, with credit to the people who delivered them.
- Numbers, explained: a fixed set of three to five figures, each followed by a sentence on what it means. In Scaling People, Claire Hughes Johnson, who led operations at Stripe, distinguishes input metrics from output metrics. Showing both, always in the same spot, teaches readers to compare month over month.
- What went wrong: up to three misses, each with the response already under way. A letter without misses reads like a press release.
- People: who joined, who moved into a new role, which team formed, with a line of recognition for each. This carries more weight in companies that grow by acquisition. J. Daniel Kim studied US startup acquisitions and found that 33% of acquired employees had left within a year, compared with 12% of similar regular hires. Acquired employees did not pick their new employer. Naming them in the letter is a first sign that the company picked them.
- Next month, plus one request: the top priorities and exactly one thing you need from readers, for example a referral, an introduction to a customer or specific feedback. A single request gets answered. Several cancel each other out.
At 600 to 900 words, the letter takes three to four minutes to read and works on a phone.
How does a CEO write the market section?
The market section decides whether the letter gets read or archived. The other sections cover what the company did. This one covers how you read the world outside, and no one else in the company can write it.
The rule is short: observation, then consequence. Start with something concrete, such as a customer meeting, an industry announcement, a rival's move or a figure from a report. Then say directly what it means for the company and what will change. An observation without a consequence is a newspaper clipping. A conclusion with no observation behind it is a strategy slide.
Good starting points:
- a scene from a customer visit that showed something the plan had missed,
- industry or technology news, translated into what it means here,
- a rival's move, and why your company responds its own way,
- a position that runs against what most of your market says,
- a correction of a view you held half a year ago.
Around 150 to 250 words and one thought is enough. A second thought competes with the first for the same memory.
The market section pays off twice. Your team gets your view of the market first-hand, ahead of any journalist, competitor or headhunter. And you get to try out arguments on the people who know the company best, long before you need them with investors, on a podcast or on stage.
What should a CEO leave out of the letter?
- Capital market details: valuation, cap table, the state of investor conversations and term sheet details stay out. What a closed round means for runway and plan belongs in, in plain language, once it is closed.
- Insider vocabulary: every abbreviation gets its full name the first time, and every metric gets a line on what it measures. The colleague who joined last week sets the bar.
- A delegated voice: others can gather the wins, figures and personnel updates. The market view and the misses are written by the CEO personally, in the first person. Otherwise the letter loses the reason it gets opened.
How often should a CEO write to the whole company?
As often as the CEO can hold for years. Monthly works for many. Cadence matters more than channel: a monthly letter kept for years does more than a weekly one dropped after a month. Employees notice a dropped format faster than outsiders do, and they tend to take the silence personally.
A letter that arrives when there happens to be time is a memo. The rhythm is what carries the authority.
Employees are also the audience the market quietly checks. A candidate weighing an offer or an investor running diligence will ask someone inside what it is like to work for you. I describe that dynamic in my CEO Briefing on CEO communication inside your own company, and the wider picture in my guide on CEO communication.
Send the first letter before it feels ready. Send the second one on time.
“An observation without a consequence is a newspaper clipping.”
Frequently asked questions
What should a CEO letter to employees include?
A structure that works well has six sections: a market observation with its consequence for the company, wins, the same few numbers each month, what did not work, people news and one concrete ask.
How long should a CEO letter to employees be?
Around 600 to 900 words, which takes three to four minutes to read and works on a phone. The market section alone runs about 150 to 250 words and carries one thought.
How often should a CEO write to employees?
At a rhythm the CEO can hold for years. Monthly works for many CEOs. A monthly letter kept up does more than a weekly one that stops.
Should a CEO share fundraising details in the letter?
Valuation, cap table and the state of investor talks stay out. Once a round is closed, the letter can explain in plain language what it means for runway and plans.
Do you help executives with internal communication?
Building authority with the people who work for a CEO is part of my executive branding work with CEOs and founders. You can read more about my executive branding advisory.
