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I guess this is the next upheaval in shipping. I think the last upheaval was with the introduction of the shipping container. A fascinating read on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller/dp/...
"Many freight veterans and analysts are skeptical of these efforts, saying forwarding is too complex and too dependent on longstanding relationships for new online entrants to compete." Because that's never been a problem technology has overcome. Any industry with veterans stating this sentiment is ripe for change. Not because an online app is going to solve all the worlds ills, but because there are people resisting…
The veterans aren't "resisting progress", as much as protecting their own interests by using their experience. It may be at the cost of other people, but I think it's short-sighted to call them luddites. Currently, they have no incentive to invest in tech in the way of a silicon valley startup backed by VCs. If the aim is progress to everyone's benefit, tech will make its mark once it's in the hands of some of the es…
This could be pretty huge. I've dealt with several freight forwarding companies while building a previous startup of mine and it definitely struck me as an antiquated industry (this was 2007ish). Maybe a good benchmark for "disruptable" industries is that you have to actually make a telephone call to get something done. Time to get out the yellow pages and do some research!
The.... what?
:-)
An oddly written story. Claims significant money invested in these companies ("$1 billion since the start of 2014") and proceeds to name only two -- Flexport and Freightos. The latter of which doesn't seem to fit the central disruption-of-established-industry theme because they sell software to the incumbents.
I'm involved extensively in logistics, and although I'm not Flexport's target customer nor involved in their specific space of logistics, I can easily say that they are the most exciting new thing in logistics since the container. The thing is, they aren't doing anything revolutionary. They are doing the same exact things that a lot of companies have done for decades. What makes them revolutionary is 1) They are doin…
Regulations are the hard part about freight. Each state has different rules on things, it's really crazy.
My dad ran a freight forwarding business for 25 years. They still use paper and fax. Half the office space is dedicated to cabinets of storage for paper files. Their main technology is an ancient IBM mainframe. Flexport is really going to change things.
From this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007 I learned how hard it is to do anything in this field. None the less, if someone find a way to solve it, it's truly going to be transformative.
Otherwise it'd be really easy to drown in the almost endless complexity (a lot of which doesn't need to be there but accumulated).
From this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007 I learned how hard it is to do anything in this field. None the less, if someone find a way to solve it, it's truly going to be transformative.
I think the trick will be to create a digital version of a part of the system that already exists and then gradually simplify down to something more sane. Otherwise it'd be really easy to drown in the almost endless complexity (a lot of which doesn't need to be there but accumulated).
Flexport is hiring engineers: https://jobs.lever.co/flexport As an engineer starting at Flexport in a couple of weeks, here are some more interesting resources that shaped my thinking: Interview with Ryan Petersen (Flexport CEO) https://theblueprint.com/stories/ryan-petersen/ Office hours at startup school 2013 with pg & sama https://youtu.be/syoqjYLDs48?t=1167 I also happened to have recently read Zero to One. Plus,…