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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

#121

Post by projectazorian »

psunavy03 wrote: post #109
tschwimmer wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sat with the Flexport logistics teams for months on end. I watched them move hundreds of shipments. Maybe they concealed all the secret sauce for when I got up to the go the bathroom but nothing I saw was particularly notable. They had rules like "make sure the ISV is filed at least 3 days before expected arrival" and "if the origin agent hasn't picked up the can after more than 2 days, call Joe at the destination…

Then why has it not yet been done? Has God touched Flexport on the shoulder and said "We deem Ye worthy to redeem the freight forwarding industry?" It seems to me that if it's so easy as you describe, and yet it hasn't been done, than maybe it's not so easy after all. Perhaps not impossible. Perhaps doable. But perhaps not that easy. People who work in the industry are not stupid. They don't want to do unnecessary bu…

I don’t doubt that there is a real market for Flexport’s product.

But I wonder if Flexport has achieved market saturation for the easy-to-automate work, and doesn’t yet have a compelling offering for companies with more complex logistics needs.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#122

Post by projectazorian »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #86
ryandrake wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vote for the more mundane: 3) Bored mega-millionaire wants a neat hobby to try for a year. His previous Amazon compensation for 2021 was $56 million[1], so it's not like he needs to try anymore, or make money basically ever again. 12 months later he's still bored. Maybe he quit to spend more time bathing in bathtubs full of hundred dollar bills. 1: https://fortune.com/2022/06/08/amazon-former-no-2-dave-clark...

IME you don't make $56 million by being the type of person who is looking for a neat hobby to try for a year. It's not about the money for these types. If it was they would've retired long ago, before they became top lieutenants.

Wouldn’t be surprised if he got passed over for the CEO job at Amazon, and was quietly ushered out the door.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#123

Post by mtillman »

The highest valuation for a freight forwarder is 0.96x revenue last I checked. (K&N) Just not a very exciting business from a late stage/public investor standpoint. Lots of ways to make money in the space but not a straightforward path to IPO.

https://finbox.com/SWX:KNIN/models/revenue-multiples/

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#124

Post by danjac »

PedroBatista wrote: post #67

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…

"Always hiring" could mean rapid growth: for 2-3 years though that may mean a lot of chaos as you are constantly square-bashing new hires into teams.

On the other hand, it could mean high turnover. Looking at their Glassdoor reviews and filtering out their HR-generated fakes, it paints a picture of both scenarios: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Flexport-Reviews-E1011163....

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#125

Post by DarkCrusader2 »

Sebguer wrote: post #78
dralley wrote: 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.

From what I heard during my time there, it wasn't just patrolling, he used to hide in the shadows out of sight waiting for someone to mess up then jump out and fire them right there publicly, which imo is much worse. He used to have nickname of Sniper Dave or something of that sort.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#126

Post by midoridensha »

dilyevsky wrote: post #104
jakarta wrote: post #29

hopefully by now companies realize parachuting in ex-AMZN employees is a recipe for disappointment, esp in terms of cost relative to work output

I’ve worked for one at Cruise who got “parachuted” like you put it and he was generally well respected as he definitely cleaned up the house there as the company scaled massively - I’d consider working for him again. That is to say it works for some companies but probably not everyone and ymmv depending on who you parachute.

I guess it depends on whether the company owners want to parachute someone in who has outside expertise/experience and can help out, or just someone who's a fall guy.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#127

Post by dilyevsky »

BoorishBears wrote: post #116
dilyevsky wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve worked for one at Cruise who got “parachuted” like you put it and he was generally well respected as he definitely cleaned up the house there as the company scaled massively - I’d consider working for him again. That is to say it works for some companies but probably not everyone and ymmv depending on who you parachute.

Was he from Amazon or from Zoox? Slight difference in expectations depending

That was before zoox was even acquired

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#128

Post by midoridensha »

beachy wrote: post #118
pknomad wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel conflicted about the matter. I understand the appeal of bringing in people you know; they are a known quantity and involve less risk-taking than hiring an unknown person. I can see it going super well if the new people brought in are liked and the culture from the older company is good. In our case, it was the opposite and tanked the team morale.

I've only seen it work poorly. In my experience, the new top guy brings in his old lackeys because they complemented him, and made him look good, in the context of the top guy's previous company. Hence they often turn out to be one dimensional, rather than rounded contributors - e.g great at bringing in projects on time even though everyone hates working with them, or great at technical due diligence/sniffing out sku…

>In my experience, the new top guy brings in his old lackeys because they complemented him

I think you mean they complimented him. If they had complemented him, things would have gone well.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#129

Post by gausswho »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #64
gausswho wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like to look askance at alumni of particular employers, but I have had one too many a poor experience from ex-Amazon hired into leadership roles. The above matches my experience. For me, the worst casualty as various lackeys followed arrival (also ex-Amazon) was the choking out of candidness. Second worst was turning the company into a document factory.

Do you mind saying more about "the choking out of candidness"? I know they've got their "leadership principles" kool-aid [1] at the interview stage, but I always assumed that a seriously profitable and hard-working company (which they seem to be) wouldn't waste time mincing words. [1]: https://www.aboutamazon.com/about-us/leadership-principles

With the incoming cabal there were many meetings of reading doxuments and solicitations for feedback. But it became apparent veey quickly that the confused muddle of documents were their wishes. Being candid, by say raising feasibility concerns, would only get you a fiesty rebuttal followed by being ostracized from future decision making.

What was a very social confident team at peace with asking vulnerable questions turned into a team where people took care to avoid trouble. The cabal preceding reading-meetings with gibberish, and after reading time received feedback of tense silence.

Re: Flexport CEO resigns a year after joining logistics company

#130

Post by user_named »

wilsynet wrote: post #59
pottertheotter wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on the document factory part?

Both Amazon and Google have document writing cultures. If you want to propose an idea, you write a doc about it. The value of a doc writing culture is that writing things down encourages rigor and thoughtfulness. Docs can be widely distributed, and you can read it, think about it, and add comments. Exchanging ideas can be asynchronous rather than meeting oriented. But also it can all get a bit carried away (because t…

I worked at a startup without any documentation. The cto knew everything, because he'd been in every meeting and made every decision. Everyone else became somewhat helpless due to lack of information.
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