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Congrats. I remember watching Flexport get pitched to PG and Sam Altman during open 'Office Hours' at Startup School in 2013. https://youtu.be/syoqjYLDs48?t=19

Congrats. I remember watching Flexport get pitched to PG and Sam Altman during open 'Office Hours' at Startup School in 2013. https://youtu.be/syoqjYLDs48?t=19m30s https://youtu.be/syoqjYLDs48?t=19m30s

paulcnichols 9y ago
Really inspiring.
jamestimmins 9y ago
Wow that was extremely impressive. You could tell he had a lot of experience in the industry, because he knew a surprising amount off the top of his head.
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  "Take problem from one domain you know and make a business by being really good at solving it with something from another domain you know" is a pretty tried and true business strategy.
  - jamestimmins 9y ago
    Makes perfect sense, I just hear so many people looking for problems in other areas outside their domain that it seems rare.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Which is what makes me sad being primarily a programmer. I often wish I had another career first so that I could use the programming skills to solve something there. As it is, I often feel like a loaded gun without a direction to aim in.
    - saalweachter 9y ago
      There's a reason why so many programmers want to make new programming languages, text editors, and compilers :-)
      - keganunderwood 9y ago
        I too want to work in tooling. Sadly, we are just animals and want features faster rather than having a low memory footprint (don't know how I'd do it to be honest but I'm sure desktop apps should be leaner than they are now). I mean even gnome feels pretty bloated to be honest. I think the problem is we are too accepting. We should put our foot down and say no. No to two clipboards on the same system. No to Eudora or whatever running in the background even though you haven't set up an email account with it. No to apps having ability to access the Internet or run at boot or run in background by default. The problem is if I try to implement this, my best hope is to fracture everything further and realistically I will fail and have no users.
    - caseysoftware 9y ago
      Get out and meet new people and learn new things! Don't go to your local "I want to build a startup!" meetup as those are almost always useless. 99% of the people there have an idea and "just need someone to build it!" Instead, check out events, meetups, conferences, trainings outside your core field. I went to a few game developer events and then music+tech meetups and learned a bunch but the most valuable were construction technology. Project management is project management. Accounting is accounting. The industry/situation changes some of the specifics but it's many of the same principles and concepts. The vast majority are free, you just have to show up.
    - mattmanser 9y ago
      You should pick up the domain you're programming in. Like when I was working on a product for the construction industry, I knew all about how certain parts of it worked. I knew all the terms and insider slang and quite a few of the problems they face because I built those things for them. There were plenty of problems I heard about that our product wasn't aimed at. When I was working for the credit industry, and that was only for 2 months, again I picked up a lot of the terms, asked questions about how the debt buying companies works, how were the banks using the information we gave them, how the debt relief system in the uk works, looked up our clients to find out what they do, ask the customer support team what they do, etc. Now I'm working making tools for the restaurant business, etc., etc. One of the things I've noticed is that most other programmers don't. Because they don't talk to the sales people. They don't talk to customers. They don't talk to the consultants. They don't ask questions about why they're implementing something. They don't ask how their product is used. You have to ask yourself, if you're not picking up problems in the domain you're presently working on, why would you if you'd worked anywhere else?
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - vvanders 9y ago
        Oh yeah, there's huge value in building a relationship with other parts of the business at a large company. A lot of people loathe talking to Sales & Marketing but I always try to have a good understanding of their areas. If you build the right relationship it also gives you great trust and authority when cross-department decisions are made since you can (reasonably) speak to both sides.
    - kcorbitt 9y ago
      Would you be interested in a service that aggregated startup/product ideas from people with deep industry experience but a lack of technical skills? It's something I've been thinking should exist.
      - dreamfactored 9y ago
        oppsdaily.com
    - nashashmi 9y ago
      When people take a look at my "computer" skills, they ask me why I didn't become a IT/programmer instead and make lots of money. I always respond "IT people don't need IT people. Everyone else needs IT people." My skills are a product of the needs of my environment.
  - justinator 9y ago
    Lateral thinking. Try getting a job that way though - you're looked at as if you're too much of a risk.
- Cyph0n 9y ago
  Not only that, but PG and Sam were masterful at drilling into the relevant details and understanding the core of his product.
bedros 9y ago
I don't get it, from the video, they say brokers make 3-5 billion a year, yet, they value the company at 800 million? I've never seen a startup valued at this large percentage of market size please correct me if I'm wrong
- mbateman 9y ago
  2% of 4B earnings market-wide would be 80M, 10x valuation on 80M is 800M.
- spiznnx 9y ago
  A company is usually worth a multiplier of annual earnings, since they make that money every year.
  - eloff 9y ago
    Startups are not evaluated like that though, the earnings multiplier approach only really applies to big public companies, and even then not so well - just look at Tesla or Amazon stock.
- gricardo99 9y ago
  He also says he sees the broker business as a foot-in-the-door for a much bigger, broader logistics business. If you go to flexport, it certainly seems they're pushing more a global logistics solution. I'm guessing the valuation is based on more than just the broker business.
- abhi3 9y ago
  Here we have a business that is going after a huge existing market. For some perspective, Slack is valued at > 5 Billion
  - eloff 9y ago
    Here's where the market is being irrational in my opinion. I would bet that in 10 years Flexport dwarfs Slack in revenue and in growth potential.
dopamean 9y ago
Man PG's style of interviewing is super annoying. I get that he was curious and seemingly enthusiastic but at times the dude could barely get out a word.
ijafri 9y ago
Watching this video was immersive in a way Ryan has introduced customs brokerage and freight forwarding to the valley and internet to the freight industry. I meant it was PG and Sam asking him like... ELI5 wow

paulcnichols 9y ago

Really inspiring.

jamestimmins 9y ago

Wow that was extremely impressive. You could tell he had a lot of experience in the industry, because he knew a surprising amount off the top of his head.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago
"Take problem from one domain you know and make a business by being really good at solving it with something from another domain you know" is a pretty tried and true business strategy.
- jamestimmins 9y ago
  Makes perfect sense, I just hear so many people looking for problems in other areas outside their domain that it seems rare.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Which is what makes me sad being primarily a programmer. I often wish I had another career first so that I could use the programming skills to solve something there. As it is, I often feel like a loaded gun without a direction to aim in.
  - saalweachter 9y ago
    There's a reason why so many programmers want to make new programming languages, text editors, and compilers :-)
    - keganunderwood 9y ago
      I too want to work in tooling. Sadly, we are just animals and want features faster rather than having a low memory footprint (don't know how I'd do it to be honest but I'm sure desktop apps should be leaner than they are now). I mean even gnome feels pretty bloated to be honest. I think the problem is we are too accepting. We should put our foot down and say no. No to two clipboards on the same system. No to Eudora or whatever running in the background even though you haven't set up an email account with it. No to apps having ability to access the Internet or run at boot or run in background by default. The problem is if I try to implement this, my best hope is to fracture everything further and realistically I will fail and have no users.
  - caseysoftware 9y ago
    Get out and meet new people and learn new things! Don't go to your local "I want to build a startup!" meetup as those are almost always useless. 99% of the people there have an idea and "just need someone to build it!" Instead, check out events, meetups, conferences, trainings outside your core field. I went to a few game developer events and then music+tech meetups and learned a bunch but the most valuable were construction technology. Project management is project management. Accounting is accounting. The industry/situation changes some of the specifics but it's many of the same principles and concepts. The vast majority are free, you just have to show up.
  - mattmanser 9y ago
    You should pick up the domain you're programming in. Like when I was working on a product for the construction industry, I knew all about how certain parts of it worked. I knew all the terms and insider slang and quite a few of the problems they face because I built those things for them. There were plenty of problems I heard about that our product wasn't aimed at. When I was working for the credit industry, and that was only for 2 months, again I picked up a lot of the terms, asked questions about how the debt buying companies works, how were the banks using the information we gave them, how the debt relief system in the uk works, looked up our clients to find out what they do, ask the customer support team what they do, etc. Now I'm working making tools for the restaurant business, etc., etc. One of the things I've noticed is that most other programmers don't. Because they don't talk to the sales people. They don't talk to customers. They don't talk to the consultants. They don't ask questions about why they're implementing something. They don't ask how their product is used. You have to ask yourself, if you're not picking up problems in the domain you're presently working on, why would you if you'd worked anywhere else?
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - vvanders 9y ago
      Oh yeah, there's huge value in building a relationship with other parts of the business at a large company. A lot of people loathe talking to Sales & Marketing but I always try to have a good understanding of their areas. If you build the right relationship it also gives you great trust and authority when cross-department decisions are made since you can (reasonably) speak to both sides.
  - kcorbitt 9y ago
    Would you be interested in a service that aggregated startup/product ideas from people with deep industry experience but a lack of technical skills? It's something I've been thinking should exist.
    - dreamfactored 9y ago
      oppsdaily.com
  - nashashmi 9y ago
    When people take a look at my "computer" skills, they ask me why I didn't become a IT/programmer instead and make lots of money. I always respond "IT people don't need IT people. Everyone else needs IT people." My skills are a product of the needs of my environment.
- justinator 9y ago
  Lateral thinking. Try getting a job that way though - you're looked at as if you're too much of a risk.
Cyph0n 9y ago
Not only that, but PG and Sam were masterful at drilling into the relevant details and understanding the core of his product.

bedros 9y ago

I don't get it, from the video, they say brokers make 3-5 billion a year, yet, they value the company at 800 million? I've never seen a startup valued at this large percentage of market size please correct me if I'm wrong

mbateman 9y ago
2% of 4B earnings market-wide would be 80M, 10x valuation on 80M is 800M.
spiznnx 9y ago
A company is usually worth a multiplier of annual earnings, since they make that money every year.
- eloff 9y ago
  Startups are not evaluated like that though, the earnings multiplier approach only really applies to big public companies, and even then not so well - just look at Tesla or Amazon stock.
gricardo99 9y ago
He also says he sees the broker business as a foot-in-the-door for a much bigger, broader logistics business. If you go to flexport, it certainly seems they're pushing more a global logistics solution. I'm guessing the valuation is based on more than just the broker business.
abhi3 9y ago
Here we have a business that is going after a huge existing market. For some perspective, Slack is valued at > 5 Billion
- eloff 9y ago
  Here's where the market is being irrational in my opinion. I would bet that in 10 years Flexport dwarfs Slack in revenue and in growth potential.

dopamean 9y ago

Man PG's style of interviewing is super annoying. I get that he was curious and seemingly enthusiastic but at times the dude could barely get out a word.

ijafri 9y ago

Watching this video was immersive in a way Ryan has introduced customs brokerage and freight forwarding to the valley and internet to the freight industry. I meant it was PG and Sam asking him like... ELI5 wow