
Flexport’s plan to build a freight empire with its $110M raise - jseliger
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/06/a-social-network-for-trade/
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bobjordan
My main issue with the product was pricing. For example, they quoted me to
ship a load for ~$1700 USD that only cost me ~$1300 USD to ship with my own
FedEx company account. That kind of pricing delta is not sustainable. They
might get a few kickstarter customers that don't know any better. But, if they
are going to sustain that valuation, they'd better figure out how to get
pricing that sounds good to clients that know what is going on. [Edited
pricing].

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IAmGraydon
What kind of load? My understanding is that they really specialize in loads
that would be far too large for FedEx. Think shipping containers.

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bobjordan
My experience was a large air shipment. Can't remember the exact details but
probably on order of 100 cartons at 10KG each.

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GoRudy
What are the real risks to their business? So they need to own the shipping
containers, planes etc?

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kirykl
The space is actually really crowded and relationships matter more than they
should.

Flex can’t charge a premium and die without the volume. Freight is a cost
center. The absolutely largest buyers will use in house or demand lowest
rates, small guys cant afford high rates.

Also owning equipment is righ risk low reward.

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stcredzero
_Also owning equipment is high risk low reward._

The industry is already at the stage where the cost of financing is a
competitive disadvantage. They're on the right track with vertical
integration. But they'd need partnerships with manufacturing and finance to
make things really work. Do they have those?

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andrewfromx
the Facebook part makes total sense. If I have 100k worth of stuff in china
just sitting there, I'd very much like to click "like" on the cat video the
guy in china who could move my shipment up in the queue just posted.

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jgalt212
If they build a good product/organization, I think they have a nice takeout by
Amazon or Walmart in their future.

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adamnemecek
They can do a lot better than that. Shipping is such a backbone of 21st
century that an amazon or Walmart acquisition would be kinda underwhelming.

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jgalt212
Yeah, I can see that as well. In short, well executed I like their payoff
matrix across a number of eventualities.

Sort of like an AWS for logistics.

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staunch
> _"...Money’s sexy I guess"_

The founder really summed his sole motivation right there. This is a mercenary
company that could have been created by a hedge fund.

Unlike Amazon, no one would want to work at Flexport except people focused
entirely on money, and those aren't the best people.

This company is another (still rare) example of 1999 style VC investing. It
will either flip or implode within a couple years. See: Zenefits

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akavi
> Unlike Amazon, no one would want to work at Flexport except people focused
> entirely on money, and those aren't the best people.

I'm a dev at Flexport, and it's pretty funny to hear I chose it for the money
(Not my most lucrative job offer by a long shot). Personally, I work there
because I find the challenge of mapping the complexity of an industry as
consequential as global freight into tractable software to be deeply
satisfying. YMMV, of course.

