FILE: Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen speaks at a conference in Toronto, Canada, June 23, 2022.
Harry Murphy/Sportsfile/Getty Images
San Francisco-based Flexport has had a difficult year financially, and the drama is hitting Bay Area workers again.
The giant logistics technology startup took advantage of the boom in shipping costs during the pandemic to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, but is struggling to live up to that bill. In just a single week in September, Flexport fired its high-profile CEO, cut its team of industry veterans and withdrew job offers with just a few days’ notice.
Now, barely a month later, Flexport has announced hundreds of layoffs.
Those decisions fell to Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen, who regained control of the company through a takeover in September. Petersen, a UC Berkeley graduate, founded Flexport in 2013. The company promotes its core product as a platform to connect the entire supply chain — a venture that became particularly lucrative during the pandemic as shipping costs skyrocketed. Flexport closed a $935 million fundraising round in early 2022 led by technology stalwart Andreessen Horowitz. As CNBC reported, the round boosted Flexport’s valuation to $8 billion and its total fundraising to $2.3 billion.
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A few months later, the company hired Dave Clark, a 23-year veteran of Amazon who had built the tech giant’s logistics and fulfillment businesses into one of the largest delivery systems in the world. Petersen wrote in a note at the time that Clark had done “legendary” work and that his arrival as CEO had ensured that Flexport “lived up to our potential.”
But the good mood wouldn’t last. After growing the company to more than 3,000 employees during the pandemic, Flexport laid off about a fifth of its workforce in January and then bought Shopify’s logistics division in May. According to the information, Flexport’s revenue fell by almost 70% in the first half of 2023.
Meanwhile, as had been planned since Clark took office, Petersen stepped down after a stint as co-CEO, leaving Clark in sole charge of the unprofitable company.
After about six months, on September 6, Petersen and Clark met to talk — sort of. According to a report from the Information, Clark was caught off guard when Petersen was accompanied on the call by a Flexport board member. The couple told Clark he had the choice of either resigning immediately or being fired by the board the next day.
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Clark announced his resignation this afternoon on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing that he was proud of his work but that “founders have the right to change their minds.”
Petersen was CEO again. Early the next morning, he Posted to He apologized but said there was “no way around it” and that he hoped the potential employees would forgive Flexport “at some point.” He then announced a plan to sublease several offices, including one in San Francisco.
According to the information, Petersen also fired at least five of Clark’s top lieutenants, all of whom had worked with Clark at Amazon.
Now, about a month later, Petersen’s return to leadership at Flexport has reached a familiar and brutal point: another round of layoffs. The CEO announced another 20% job cuts in a blog post on Thursday, writing that the layoffs would begin Friday, with a nine-week severance package for American employees – less than many other tech firms have paid this year.
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By midday, engineers and designers flocked to LinkedIn to say personal goodbyes to Flexport and their former colleagues.
Have you heard anything happening at Flexport or any other tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at [email protected] or via Signal at 628-204-5452.