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

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

#61

Post by dsfyu404ed »

jamestimmins wrote: post #28
fireworks10 wrote: post #4

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

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.

"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.

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

#62

Post by abhi3 »

bedros wrote: post #49
fireworks10 wrote: post #4

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

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

Here we have a business that is going after a huge existing market. For some perspective, Slack is valued at > 5 Billion

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

#63

Post by jamestimmins »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #61
jamestimmins wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"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.

Makes perfect sense, I just hear so many people looking for problems in other areas outside their domain that it seems rare.

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

#64

Post by zjaffee »

myroon5 wrote: post #25

"And while investors were happily offering it a valuation of $1 billion or more, Petersen didn’t want to get in over his head and risk a down-round later if the market stumbled." This is straight out of Silicon Valley (the show)... why wouldn't you take the best valuation for your company?

A lower valuation without strict liquidation preferences is almost always better for the company, however publicly announcing that you could've been valued for more helps attract engineers who want to profit off of startup valuation multiples.

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

#65

Post by zjaffee »

nightski wrote: post #60
ams6110 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think because freight forwarding and brokering across borders is decidedly "unsexy" to most people.

Sure, that is fair. I probably didn't word it correctly. I mean if you keep repeating that it is "unsexy" people will probably believe it to be true. Why choose to send that message instead of hey we are this sexy logistics company? It's a minor detail, so I don't mean to make too big of a deal out of it. Just seems odd.

It's because tons of unsexy companies had tried doing it the other way, to the point where so many companies have done it that it's started to leave a bad taste in peoples mouth.

People are starting to get into the whole, we aren't sexy but we are solving meaningful problems thing lately.

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

#66

Post by [deleted] »

baybal2 wrote: post #56

As of now, Flexport is just a front-end to few other online shipping companies. One of many gazillions companies doing the same. If you ask who can be sold for a lot of moneys, it will be them: all 'seals of approval'(Thiel, YC, big banks waiting in line to underwrite for them), buzzwords, star team, and so much money and resources that they can't possibly screw up operationally If you ask who will be dominating the…

[deleted]

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

#68

Post by mbesto »

nightski wrote: post #54

What is the story behind why they have embraced the "unsexy" label? Do they have some sort of complex? Logistics can be an incredibly sexy problem for a variety of technical and even mathematical reasons.

> What is the story behind why they have embraced the "unsexy" label?

PR.

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

#69

Post by eloff »

spiznnx wrote: post #55
bedros wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A company is usually worth a multiplier of annual earnings, since they make that money every year.

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.

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

#70

Post by eloff »

abhi3 wrote: post #62
bedros wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Here we have a business that is going after a huge existing market. For some perspective, Slack is valued at > 5 Billion

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.
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