Ryan Petersen, Founder & CEO @ Flexport, talks about the origins of Flexport, the difference between speed and velocity in company building, the impact of excessive fundraising and over-hiring, the art of resource allocation, the future of trade with China, and balancing CEO and fatherhood.

Ryan Petersen, is the CEO of Flexport, ac ompany that builds software that integrates all the different shipping vendor systems you might run into as you try to get a product from a factory in China to a consumer in Idaho: rail, sea, truck. We’ve talked about the supply chain and inventory management on Decoder with a lot of our guests — the chip shortage seems to affect every company, and sorting out how to get products made and delivered on time is a pretty universal problem. But we haven’t really talked about how products get from one place to another around the world. So I wanted to talk to Ryan, figure out what Flexport’s role in all this is, what his bigger supply chain solutions would be, and why he’s leaving his job as CEO to be executive chairman and handing the reins to Dave Clark, who used to work at Amazon.Links:Dave Clark to Join Flexport As Our New CEOFlexport Wants to Be Uber of the OceansAt Google, Eric Schmidt Wrote the Book on Adult SupervisionThe real story behind a tech founder’s ‘tweetstorm that saves Christmas’Ryan's twitter threadTranscript:https://www.theverge.com/e/23126062Credits:Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright.The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters. And our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ed Elson speaks with Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport, about logistics, the company's valuation, finding fame as an entrepreneur, and Ryan's thoughts on money. They also discuss the challenges in the supply chain management industry, Flexport's customer-centric approach, and the importance of leveraging customer data. Ryan shares his experience of stepping down as CEO and later returning to revive the company. He also talks about the sacrifices required as a founder and the importance of finding support in chat groups and meetup groups with other CEOs.

In today’s episode, we have a special treat. Flexport’s co-CEO and Founder, Ryan Petersen, chats with a16z Growth Editor Das Rush. They start with the question of why Ryan has chosen – of all the problem spaces to work on – improving the resiliency of the supply chain. They cover just how complex the supply chain is in the era of ecommerce, evolving customer expectations, and ultimately how we can rearchitect our supply chain to meet them. Given the holiday shopping coming up, you won’t want to miss this.Timestamps:​​0:00 - Introduction1:24 - Why the supply chain?3:31 - Land and expand6:38 - The most interesting company?9:24 - The impact of ecommerce14:05 - Building resiliency Resources: Ryan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/typesfastFlexport’s website: https://www.flexport.com/ Stay Updated: Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16zFind us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16zSubscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithioPlease note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, joins Jason to discuss the economics of 'pick and pack', factory-to-consumer effects, the impact of the Red Sea crisis, and Flexport's leadership changes.

My guest today is Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport. Flexport is a technology platform for global trade. In this conversation, Ryan takes us through the fragmented world of international freight shipping, and we dive deep into the history and inefficiencies of the system. We also cover how shipping containers were standardized, how new protocols get adopted internationally, and the challenges of doing business in the “no man's land” of international waters. Ryan is the type of entrepreneur I enjoy talking to most: he has incredible domain knowledge, high energy and is tackling an enormous global problem. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ryan Petersen. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. If you are looking for the best place to build web apps or API backends on robust infrastructure, DigitalOcean is the place for you. They provide a fully managed solution that handles your infrastructure, operating systems, databases, and other dependencies, on their new App Platform product. App Platform makes it easy to build, deploy, and scale apps. Get started for free at do.co/founders.-----Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:03:24] - [First question] - Overview of what Flexport does[00:04:49] - His introduction into the world of shipping[00:06:49] - Difference between parcel and freight[00:08:53] - Market cap of the overall shipping industry[00:12:52] - Worst parts of the shipping world[00:15:34] - Improving the tech behind the shipping container[00:19:06] - Why the shipping container changed the world[00:19:07] - The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger[00:21:27] - Teams and outsider perspectives in solving problems[00:22:34] - How their business could make shipping more efficient and reduce costs[00:25:24] - Where the margins and profits are made in shipping[00:25:49] - Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger[00:27:11] - The finance side of shipping[00:28:56] - Maritime law and the ocean[00:30:57] - How much is left in the digitization of shipping[00:32:48] - The perfect state of shipping using Flexport[00:38:19] - Investing in hard assets to expand the business[00:41:03] - Lessons about building a business and global coordination[00:43:15] - Multidisciplinary thinking among their team[00:44:04] - Global supply chain issues in light of Covid and ocean policing [00:44:15] - Peter Zeihan Podcast Episode[00:47:59] - Testing out demand in the beginning[00:50:28] - The process of testing out new ideas and killing off losers[00:52:33] - Important lessons/themes for founders[00:54:51] - Hardest learned lesson, fundraising[00:58:06] - Other opportunities in shipping[00:59:47] - Lessons for creating a new standard[01:02:22] - Using their standardization to improve global relief work[01:04:40] - Creating synchronicity in a company[01:07:09] - What he’s excited about for the future[01:07:53] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen, discusses supply chain breakdowns, scaling freight forwarding businesses, deglobalization vs international trade. Also, explores challenges in logistics integration, global shipping dynamics, contrarian approach to AI, and management challenges in business operations.

0:00 Sacks' shining moment 2:34 Bestie Guestie Ryan Petersen joins to break down the supply chain situation: core issues, solutions, things to look out for 45:49 $FB's major pullback: causes, headwinds, and why going all-in on the Metaverse might have been a "frothy market mistake" 55:28 Breaking down the competition in the "XR Wars": Meta, Apple, Microsoft and Google; why a phone might have been a better $10B/year bet for Facebook, Google's strategic brilliance 1:09:14 Spotify's Joe Rogan situation: positions, speech rights, division amongst free speech 1:23:08 Reflection on Baby Boomers' transition from radically free speech and anti-government to authoritarian, misinformation changing over time, using science to discredit science 1:30:10 Xi Jinping and Putin are deepening their relationship: what does this mean for the world, and how should the US strategically respond? Follow the besties: https://twitter.com/chamath https://linktr.ee/calacanis https://twitter.com/DavidSacks https://twitter.com/friedberg Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/theallinpod https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://www.google.com/finance/quote/INGR:NYSE https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2021/04/23/walmarts-massive-investment-in-a-supply-chain-transformation/?sh=41a6b18340ed https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/20/peloton-to-pause-production-of-its-bikes-treadmills-as-demand-wanes.html https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1451543776992845834 https://www.google.com/finance/quote/FB:NASDAQ https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/meta-reality-labs-reports-10-billion-loss.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-privacy-change-will-cost-10-billion-this-year.html https://www.google.com/finance/quote/PYPL:NASDAQ https://www.google.com/finance/quote/SNAP:NYSE https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/03/facebook-and-google-stocks-have-diverged-and-the-reason-is-apple.html https://twitter.com/GavinSBaker/status/1462831115572596744 https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NFLX:NASDAQ https://www.google.com/finance/quote/AMZN:NASDAQ https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1489321225520238592 https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/get-ready-for-the-no-buy-list https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/arts/music/spotify-neil-young-joe-rogan.html https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/3/22915456/spotify-ceo-joe-rogan-daniel-ek-town-hall-speech-platform-podcast https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10475473/Barack-Michelle-Obama-preparing-shop-new-podcast-partner-amid-outcry-Joe-Rogan.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/02/02/spotify-rogan-white-house-covid-misinformation https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1488252747489202181 https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1489258034865971205 https://www.thewrap.com/tucker-carlson-liberal-viewership-fox-news https://twitter.com/echeloninsights/status/1487118055582965762 https://twitter.com/MonmouthPoll/status/1488180589505167372 https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-vladimir-putin-meets-with-chinese-leader-xi-jinping-in-beijing-11643966743 https://www.voltairenet.org/article215540.html

Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport, shares his journey from importing motorcycles to leading a billion-dollar logistics company. He dives into the chaotic supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, revealing how Flexport leveraged technology to tackle age-old industry issues. Petersen also discusses creating a children's book inspired by global trade, and explores the complexities of labor unions in U.S. ports. His insights on innovative strategies during COVID-19 highlight the importance of adaptability and relationships in the fast-evolving logistics landscape.

Founder and CEO of Flexport, Ryan Petersen, shares insights on why MBA's can be good entrepreneurs, his experience as a single founder, and the challenges of fundraising. He discusses the importance of strategic boards and rethinking traditional setups. Petersen also touches on building a successful business over high valuations and Flexport's future vision as the trade operating system.