$50 billion. That’s how much in tariff refunds Ryan Petersen hopes to retrieve for U.S. citizens using AI agents recently built by his startup, Flexport.
But logistics unicorn Flexport was struggling when co-founder Petersen returned as CEO in 2023. Customers were fleeing; morale had plunged. Ryan talks about his Upstart Moment in engineering a comeback – and why AI agents are increasingly the answer for solving the messiest challenges in global trade.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:16 Tech’s ‘hurricane reporter’
03:29 Scooter selling origins
06:49 ‘Schlep blindness’
09:50 Flexport’s YC pitch
12:46 ‘Nobody cares’ about your startup
17:26 Flexport’s scale today
21:38 Ryan’s Upstart Moment
28:12 AI changes everything
32:58 Getting back to winning
36:01 The future of global trade
For more, visit https://www.upstartsmedia.com/
Season 1 of the Upstarts Podcast is presented by Mercury: https://mercury.com/
Produced & edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod: https://lightningpod.fm/
