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Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

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Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#71

Isn't Flexport the company that was on HN's top page pretty much every week for like 2-3 years? Always hiring? Having a general idea of how logistics work ( it's an huge complex and many times insane monster sometimes devourer of men ), something's was "off" with this whole Flexport signaling. Not saying it's a time bomb or a WeWork because I don't have any information about that, but I always had the general feeling…

Sometimes the board is to blame. You never know.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could probably write a book on him and everything he did at Amazon that was worth talking about, and I gotta admit, I didn't want to start today, but you're right that he deserves an explanation. Here's a few snippets that can be directly attributed to him: * Amazon's policy of firing people on the spot for talking about unionizing. * Their (former) policy of not operating anywhere where they would end up having to…

Worst was his tweets mocking Bernie Sanders

Classic Enron, social Darwinian clone type.

Too many people forget the pissing in Coke bottles fiascos.

Also, people forget how bad workplace conditions can get, i.e., when Carnegie's Pinkerton snipers opened fire on Homestead union steel workers in the massacre of 1892.

The US middle-class had it best post-War when unions were strong between 1947 and 1965. Now, there is about an 1930's-level of unionization that is declining without any floor in sight.

Socialism in the US is a distant memory of its former self.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_General_Strike

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_strike_wave_of_1919

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#73

Isn't Flexport the company that was on HN's top page pretty much every week for like 2-3 years? Always hiring? Having a general idea of how logistics work ( it's an huge complex and many times insane monster sometimes devourer of men ), something's was "off" with this whole Flexport signaling. Not saying it's a time bomb or a WeWork because I don't have any information about that, but I always had the general feeling…

They're back: https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs?next=37238976

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could probably write a book on him and everything he did at Amazon that was worth talking about, and I gotta admit, I didn't want to start today, but you're right that he deserves an explanation. Here's a few snippets that can be directly attributed to him: * Amazon's policy of firing people on the spot for talking about unionizing. * Their (former) policy of not operating anywhere where they would end up having to…

Worst was his tweets mocking Bernie Sanders

Not sure which ones you're referencing, but if its about the Alabama unionization effort, it's extra hilarious. He made such a show to say that Amazon pays its workers $15/hr, but what he didn't say was that he treats his employees so poorly that they couldn't hire anybody to work for anything less than $15/hr, which was already 30% higher than market prices in the warehouse fulfillment industry. He was the reason that they were paying $15/hr, and he was bragging about it like it wasn't one of his biggest failures as a wannabe cutthroat businessman.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#76
post #33

I'm sure there's some juicy details behind the curtains, but people are too professional to air it publicly. Here's some fun but baseless theories: 1) Typical big-company guy fails to adapt to startup life. A year ago, Flexport's tech team was 400 people. That's minuscule compared to what Dave's used to at Amazon. He came in, insisted on a bunch of unnecessary hiring, bloated the tech team with deadwood, internal kin…

3) Amazon grad takes hold of a freight forwarder, and then realizes freight forwarding is not a tech company, nor is it just warehousing and distribution. And then realizes his competitors rely as much on grizzled logistics veterans and their corporate knowledge about customs brokerage and how to Get Shit Done and Get Shit From Point A to Point B as they do on a cool tech stack. And then goes "shit." Don't get me wro…

Unsatisfied with their IBM mainframe which had a 99.99% uptime (seriously how much missed opportunity cost is that hour of downtime per year!) with a kubernetes microservice application where each of the 1000 components had an extremely impressive 99.999% uptime.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#77
post #68

Looks like he is running for Governor in Texas. https://x.com/davehclark/status/1699574686848352532?s=46&t=B...

As much as I despise the trend of tech execs used to thinking that the're mini-gods who can do anything running for office, Texas can hardly do worse than the current government.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#78
post #77
post #68

Looks like he is running for Governor in Texas. https://x.com/davehclark/status/1699574686848352532?s=46&t=B...

As much as I despise the trend of tech execs used to thinking that the're mini-gods who can do anything running for office, Texas can hardly do worse than the current government.

Dude was famous in his earlier career for being a giant narc and patrolling the warehouses for people to fire. Not sure he'd be anything but a ghoul given real power.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#80
post #78
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I despise the trend of tech execs used to thinking that the're mini-gods who can do anything running for office, Texas can hardly do worse than the current government.

Dude was famous in his earlier career for being a giant narc and patrolling the warehouses for people to fire. Not sure he'd be anything but a ghoul given real power.

You're probably right of course. But, I'm not sure that differentiates him from the current batch.
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