Welcome to Episode 68! Ryan Petersen is the Founder and CEO of Flexport, the freight forwarder for the internet age. Flexport recently raised a phenomenal $65m Series B from the likes of Founders Fund, First Round, Felicis Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Yuri Milner, Susa Ventures and more incredible investors. With none other than YC founder Paul Graham stating, “Ryan has the rare ability to not just satisfy the market but grow it.” Prior to Flexport, Ryan was Founder and CEO of ImportGenius.com, the largest provider of business intelligence to the import-export industry. A huge hand to Chad Byers at Susa and Jason Lemkin for the intro.
In today’s episode you will learn:
How did Ryan make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found Flexport?
How does Ryan view NPS? Why is he so bullish? Why is it the most important metric? What are the downsides to relying on NPS?
What is the optimal method to structure internal compensation structures? Why is compensation based on NPS and Net not effective and what are the dangers of this?
How can founders look to implement bottoms up decision making in their organization? What are the benefits of this and what are the challenges to its implementation?
Ryan is hiring his first VP of Marketing. What should founders look for in their VP of Marketing? Why is now the right time and what challenges has Ryan faced in the process?
60 Second SaaStr:
Fave SaaS reading material?
What does Ryan know now that he wishes he had known when he started?
What has been his biggest learning throughout the Flexport journey?
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