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Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

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Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#51

Remember when everyone cut jobs and canceled orders at the beginning of the pandemic and it really bit them? I'm like 49% sure that's going to happen again. Something funny is in the air.

Do you expect easy money to come back? Nearly all of the companies laying people off are the unsustainable ones.

I can imagine a lot of companies struggling to hire in a few months. But I can't imagine they being the same ones that are just firing.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#52

Remember when everyone cut jobs and canceled orders at the beginning of the pandemic and it really bit them? I'm like 49% sure that's going to happen again. Something funny is in the air.

Do you expect easy money to come back? Nearly all of the companies laying people off are the unsustainable ones. I can imagine a lot of companies struggling to hire in a few months. But I can't imagine they being the same ones that are just firing.

Google? Microsoft? Facebook?

There are a lot of companies not unsustainabled, at least in the 10 year frame, that are laying off.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that they say: > At Flexport, 2023 is going to bring extraordinary velocity – we are in the process of doubling our software engineering talent and moving to single threaded business organizations to build world class products faster, and we will continue to invest in delivering best-in-class operational execution for our customers. Looks like they are laying off non-tech workers who they have made (or wi…

moving to single threaded business organizations What does that even mean? They are only able to do one thing at a time? Doesn't sound like a recipe for business success to me...

"They are only able to do one thing at a time?"

To be fair, many new businesses cannot do one thing at a time, so maybe singular focus is a good thing at this stage...

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#56
post #2

I don't know what Flexport is, all I know is that it was the only jobs ad in Hacker News for a long time

Totally! I was literally spammed by FP recruiters .. hyper growth, hyper growth ... and now you see it ... give me a break!

Why do so many startups use this stupid language? It sounds like a crypto scam.

Quick! Don't think! Get in on the ground floor so you won't be left behind when we go to the moon and you can become a bazillionaire!

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#57

The AMZN logistics ceo first ruined AMZN with the over expansion and then took the ceo role in flexport to do exactly the same thing. Amazing incompetence.

These people just got into amazon early and rode the wave to the top. Some of them are truly talented, most were in the right place at the right time

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#58
post #39
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC-funded freight forwarding company. Basic thesis is by using tech, you can dramatically lower the labor costs of forwarding, and since freight forwarding has huge returns to scale, the benefits compound. They raised 2 G$ from 2019-2022, and their CEO used that warchest to expand counter-cyclically through the pandemic. TBD if either of the two theses pan out. Freight forwarding itself is the industry of coordinatin…

> Basic thesis is by using tech, you can dramatically lower the labor costs of forwarding, and since freight forwarding has huge returns to scale, the benefits compound Is this remotely true though? Aren't the main costs of forwarding simply fuel? At some point I was importing goods from China (really small volume though) and I did ask them for a quote, and they were twice the price what the Chinese factory could get…

Freight forwarders merely subcontract to the underlying carriers, who, theoretically, are pretty commoditized. In this model, the differentiating costs for a freight forwarder is in the labor required to organize the various subcontracts, which is what Flexport attempts to drive down via tech.

That said, I can't really vouch for the soundness of this argument one way or another. It's been a long time since I worked there, and my primary interest when I did was more in understanding the industry at a conceptual level than in litigating the viability of the business model.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#59
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC-funded freight forwarding company. Basic thesis is by using tech, you can dramatically lower the labor costs of forwarding, and since freight forwarding has huge returns to scale, the benefits compound. They raised 2 G$ from 2019-2022, and their CEO used that warchest to expand counter-cyclically through the pandemic. TBD if either of the two theses pan out. Freight forwarding itself is the industry of coordinatin…

Is there room for more innovation in the space, thoughts?

Definitely. Once you start moving containers you realize how crazy the system can get. There’s lot of room to improve the current systems.

Re: Flexport slashes 20% of global workforce over weak 2023 volume forecast

#60
post #23
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a message from them in my linkedin inbox from January 3rd (8 days ago) telling me about exciting opportunities there. > You’d be joining at an exciting time, Flexport is in a hyper-growth stage

Can you imagine the backlash they would get from both inside and outside the company if they started pulling job recs before publicly announcing the downsizing? See also: insider trading

Huh? Most companies in the world realize they can not afford permanently recruiting 10% of their headcount long before they need to layoff anyone.
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