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Freight startup Flexport soars from ‘unsexy’ to $800M valuation

techcrunch.com

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Re: Freight startup Flexport soars from ‘unsexy’ to $800M valuation

#11

Post by xemdetia »

petra wrote: post #7

What about Amazon? they had a some similar plan, to become a global logistics network. And it's highly likely they'll be a competitor to flexport ? What's Flexport's advantage in that case ?

I don't know of any part of Amazon that lets you just ship a container full of copper bars to your loading dock. They are more competing with other bulk shippers than what Amazon would be trying to provide.

Re: Freight startup Flexport soars from ‘unsexy’ to $800M valuation

#12

Post by dmoy »

petra wrote: post #7

What about Amazon? they had a some similar plan, to become a global logistics network. And it's highly likely they'll be a competitor to flexport ? What's Flexport's advantage in that case ?

I mean I'm not in the shipping industry, but I'd guess it'd be a long while before Amazon becomes very focused/involved in the particulars of the container shipping industry, where Flexport is focused. Amazon has a lot of other stuff on their plate to tackle. If Amazon ever becomes such a large percentage of global trade that they can actually make use of a whole fleet of container ships then maybe.

But for now, just to put things in perspective, Amazon only a year ago started up a cargo plane operation with ~20 planes. Depending on the kind of plane, that's around 1000-1500 cubic meters, 400-500 metric tons for their whole fleet of cargo planes.

For comparison, a single cargo ship (not even the biggest ones) caries >50,000 cubic meters and >150,000 tons. So we're talking orders and orders of magnitude difference when you account for a whole fleet.

I'd wait to see whether or not amazon expands their air freight more after using it to capacity before guessing that they'd get into the container industry.

But again, outsider perspective, so I could be way off, would welcome some info from someone more knowledgeable.

Re: Freight startup Flexport soars from ‘unsexy’ to $800M valuation

#14

Post by trollopTheJope »

geofft wrote: post #5

Is this an article from TechCrunch about how a company doing good, important, profitable work was previously called "unsexy" by TechCrunch and is continuing to do good, important, profitable work? Did anyone else call them "unsexy"? > But as the mainstream embraces startup culture and aspiring founders flood Silicon Valley, there seems to be no shortage of people willing to chase things that seem like a bad idea. ...…

s/article/advertisement/g

Re: Freight startup Flexport soars from ‘unsexy’ to $800M valuation

#15

Post by kbenson »

pinko wrote: post #10

From the article: "Flexport wholistically analyzes all its data to optimize shipping routes and simplify relationships with ports, truck drivers and anyone else that touches a container". wholistically? ouch.

It's a word. I didn't know that, until I just looked. It's a variant spelling of holistic. I actually like it better than holistic, since the base word is more recognizable.

P.S. At least I assume the "ouch" was about it being a misspelling. Maybe I'm wrong.

Re: Freight startup Flexport soars from ‘unsexy’ to $800M valuation

#17

Post by tedmc »

I am a customer. They are my favorite to use, but I don't use them for everything because they don't get me 100% end to end with Amazon. Other companies do. I just talked with someone about this, and I hope that they get into it, even if it's just white labelled through their interface.

I had no idea their founder also was involved in Import Genius, but that makes total sense.

Huzzah Flexport!

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