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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

#121

Post by petra »

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…

You should also add low interest financing to that list, as alipay does for vendors who sell on the alibaba platform.

Btw who is this Singaporean"APIsed 3pl/scm" leader ?

Although in a sense , what the big deal, if flexe(very scalable warehousing and fulfillment provider) has an API, flexport can just easily integrate it.

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

#122

Post by keganunderwood »

saalweachter wrote: post #78
TeMPOraL wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is what makes me sad being primarily a programmer. I often wish I had another career first so that I could use the programming skills to solve something there. As it is, I often feel like a loaded gun without a direction to aim in.

There's a reason why so many programmers want to make new programming languages, text editors, and compilers :-)

I too want to work in tooling. Sadly, we are just animals and want features faster rather than having a low memory footprint (don't know how I'd do it to be honest but I'm sure desktop apps should be leaner than they are now). I mean even gnome feels pretty bloated to be honest.

I think the problem is we are too accepting. We should put our foot down and say no. No to two clipboards on the same system. No to Eudora or whatever running in the background even though you haven't set up an email account with it. No to apps having ability to access the Internet or run at boot or run in background by default.

The problem is if I try to implement this, my best hope is to fracture everything further and realistically I will fail and have no users.

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

#123

Post by ijafri »

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

Watching this video was immersive in a way Ryan has introduced customs brokerage and freight forwarding to the valley and internet to the freight industry. I meant it was PG and Sam asking him like... ELI5 wow

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

#125

Post by KGIII »

rtx wrote: post #94
erdle wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I will take the other side of this bet.

I can draw an contract for a 10% fees.

Someone set up an escrow service. I want in.

As an aside, I have pondered the viability of an escrow service aimed specifically at people who want to wager about topics like these.

I see this at verious forums, someone says Company A will be bankrupt in a year and another one says that won't happen. One of them frequently pipes up to say, "I'll bet you $100 that I'm right!"

Yet, nobody ever takes the chance to capitalize on those potential bets.

Basically, they would set their terms, agree on those terms, upload those terms in a verifiable way as the terms they agreed to, pay their money, and then wait for the time period to end.

At that point, someone at the escrow company will review the wager and the evidence and decide who gets the payout, less the fees associated with it. Not all bets are easy to judge, so writing accurate terms would be important. The service will supply, if needed, impartial judging of the merits. I suppose the company would also need to have the ability to refuse to accept certain bets, perhaps insisting that they make the goals clearly articulated and demonstrable success or failures would be important.

They might even enable it for multiple parties. Each bet would require a deposit of the entire amount due. I suppose people could even go so far as to set odds, if they wanted.

I'm pretty sure this should be a thing.

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

#126

Post by nashashmi »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #71
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Which is what makes me sad being primarily a programmer. I often wish I had another career first so that I could use the programming skills to solve something there. As it is, I often feel like a loaded gun without a direction to aim in.

When people take a look at my "computer" skills, they ask me why I didn't become a IT/programmer instead and make lots of money. I always respond "IT people don't need IT people. Everyone else needs IT people."

My skills are a product of the needs of my environment.

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

#127

Post by rashkov »

dmnd wrote: post #98
Nydhal wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of experience are you looking for a software developing position? Any internships opportunities for a CS indergrad with a statistics minor?

Flexport is hiring engineering interns too. Our stack is React & Rails, though we don't require any specific experience. All you need is an ability to chew through difficult software problems and an interest in having real-world impact with your code. Contact me via my profile if you're interested, or apply directly at the link below. https://www.flexport.com/careers/job/221999

Any opportunities for a New York based engineer? Been watching your job posts on here for a few years now, always wanted to apply but seems to be entirely in SG

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

#128

Post by svieira »

KGIII wrote: post #125
rtx wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can draw an contract for a 10% fees.

Someone set up an escrow service. I want in. As an aside, I have pondered the viability of an escrow service aimed specifically at people who want to wager about topics like these. I see this at verious forums, someone says Company A will be bankrupt in a year and another one says that won't happen. One of them frequently pipes up to say, "I'll bet you $100 that I'm right!" Yet, nobody ever takes the chance to capita…

I believe you are looking for http://longbets.org/

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

#129

Post by KGIII »

svieira wrote: post #128
KGIII wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone set up an escrow service. I want in. As an aside, I have pondered the viability of an escrow service aimed specifically at people who want to wager about topics like these. I see this at verious forums, someone says Company A will be bankrupt in a year and another one says that won't happen. One of them frequently pipes up to say, "I'll bet you $100 that I'm right!" Yet, nobody ever takes the chance to capita…

I believe you are looking for http://longbets.org/

That's pretty close, though not quite what I was looking for. I'm comfortably retired but maybe I should look into making something along these lines. They don't have to be long, for example.

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

#130

Post by dmnd »

rashkov wrote: post #127
dmnd wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flexport is hiring engineering interns too. Our stack is React & Rails, though we don't require any specific experience. All you need is an ability to chew through difficult software problems and an interest in having real-world impact with your code. Contact me via my profile if you're interested, or apply directly at the link below. https://www.flexport.com/careers/job/221999

Any opportunities for a New York based engineer? Been watching your job posts on here for a few years now, always wanted to apply but seems to be entirely in SG

Sorry, all engineering is in SF for now.
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