Founder of ImportGenius and Flexport, Ryan Petersen

Ryan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Flexport, a worldwide logistics technology platform. It’s a customs brokerage and freight forwarding company with a cutting-edge technology stack. Their objective is to improve the user experience in global trade and to use technology to move the world closer to free trade.

Ryan was the founder and CEO of ImportGenius, a leading source of transaction data for the worldwide trade industry, prior to founding Flexport. SpaceX, Robinhood, Anduril, and Expanse are among the more than 100 high-growth technology businesses in which he has invested. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA and Columbia Business School with an MBA.

Initially, Ryan sought to construct what would become Flexport within ImportGenius, but their current investors couldn’t handle the risk. It took several years to obtain all regulatory permissions and build the Flexport product’s foundation. With the help of Founders Fund, Petersen was able to build the freight software he’d been longing for.

They give every organisation tools to boost visibility, reliability, and control over international shipping by connecting all parties involved in complicated global trade transactions through a secure data and messaging platform. Flexport had 700 clients in 64 countries by the end of 2016.

Flexport has expanded to over 2,500 workers in 18 global offices and $3.3 billion in yearly revenue under his leadership. Flexport technology was used by businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, to transport almost $19 billion in merchandise across 112 countries in 2021.