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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…
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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).
From what I understand a lot of the problem isn't tech dependent but rather legal, standards, union etc related.
If you try to eat the whole pie you'll choke.
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Regulations are the hard part about freight. Each state has different rules on things, it's really crazy.
That was true in the container revolution also. Malcom McLean (inventor of modern shipping containers) had to sell his trucking business when he bought a shipping business because because the regulator at the time did not allow anyone to operate a trucking company and a shipping company at the same time. There were also rules in the US at various times which prevented people from operating a trucking/railroad company…
If the idea of revolutionizing one of the most important industries in the world interests you, reach out!
https://learn.flexport.com/want-to-revolutionize-global-trad...
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,…
How do you differentiate yourselves from FreightOS?
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).
There are tons of opportunities for efficiency gains all over these companies as they are some of the most low-tech back office operations I've seen. There's a definite gap between the biggest companies and the rest. These companies are notoriously conservative on all facets of their business, and they are a very tight knit industry. They all know what each other are up to, and they're leery of being the first mover on a technology.
This is one of many "old school" industries that are going to see some of the biggest innovation in the coming years. That will only be accelerated if we see fuel prices start to inch up again.
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.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regulations are the hard part about freight. Each state has different rules on things, it's really crazy.
That was true in the container revolution also. Malcom McLean (inventor of modern shipping containers) had to sell his trucking business when he bought a shipping business because because the regulator at the time did not allow anyone to operate a trucking company and a shipping company at the same time. There were also rules in the US at various times which prevented people from operating a trucking/railroad company…
Shipping rules used to be crazy