#92 - Ryan Petersen

About this episode

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/typesfast">Ryan Petersen</a> is the founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.flexport.com/">Flexport</a>.<br><br>Flexport is a global freight forwarder powered by software and analytics. They are making international trade easier for over 10,000 companies in 70 countries. They were part of the YC Winter 2014 batch.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br></b><br>0:23 - What is a freight forwarder?<br><br>3:08 - Selling electric scooters on eBay 15 years ago<br><br>5:53 - Ryan’s business school experience<br><br>10:23 - Amazon competing with their vendors<br><br>13:23 - Matt Susk asks - What were the most important takeaways from Columbia Business School? Would you encourage entrepreneurs to pursue a MBA?<br><br>17:03 - Tyler Hogge asks - How did you get your first three clients at Flexport?<br><br>20:03 - Being a solo founder<br><br>23:08 - Varun Khurana asks - What's your strategy for rapidly hiring the best talent in so many different global hubs?<br><br>25:53 - Challenges of scaling Flexport<br><br>27:38 - Some of Ryan’s favorite books<br><br>29:43 - Scaling culture<br><br>34:23 - Jassim Ali asks - How has the Trump policy on foreign trade affected your business so far?<br><br>39:23 - PowerDecal asks - How do you poach clients from legacy providers?<br><br>46:23 - Automation in freight forwarding<br><br>49:23 - Jason Yannos asks - If you weren't operating Flexport and had to source a new idea to work on, where would you start?<br><br>53:23 - Derisking product ideas<br><br>56:53 - Biggest lessons learned at Flexport</p>