How to Build A Competitive Edge with Ryan Petersen of Flexport

In 2013, when Ryan Petersen launched Flexport, he approached the
problem from a customer’s perspective. Early in his career, he had
worked at his brother’s import-export business, sourcing and
selling ATVs, scooters, and dirt bikes from Asia to markets around
the world. They built the entire technical platform to facilitate
these transactions, and Ryan saw an opportunity to make the freight
forwarding industry more efficient. He founded Flexport to make
global trade easy and accessible for everyone and has since raised
$2.3 billion to fuel the business. Today, Flexport’s platform
coordinates logistics from factory floor to customer door, serving
companies of all sizes. In 2023 alone, Flexport’s technology moved
over $32 billion worth of merchandise. Ryan discusses how he
leverages the U.S. Air Force’s OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act)
strategy, how AI is helping automate 1% of its freight forwarding
workflows each week, and why Flexport’s agility remains the
company’s greatest strength.