The Mint Recap: Fireside Chat with Ryan Petersen of Flexport
It was great having Ryan Petersen, Chairman + Founder of Flexport, as our special guest at The Mint a couple of weeks ago (back when he wasn’t CEO!))!
Ryan shared tons of inspiring insights about starting and growing his company, Flexport. Here are some of our favorite takeaways:
1. Get to market as fast as you can.
Prioritize speed over perfection. Waiting for the perfect product can lead to stagnation and building the wrong thing.
Ryan encouraged founders to engage directly with customers early to understand the precise needs. Insights from those interactions should drive product development — use those insights to iterate on product and find PMF as fast as possible.
2. Sales matter and are ever-changing.
Sales are vital to a company’s success and it is crucial to understand how sales evolves over time.
Sales motions are different depending on where your company is on its growth curve. Early on, sales is all about building trust: listening, learning + empathizing (for Flexport, this manifested as “logistics therapy”). Prior to PMF, founders should spend a ton of time with customers and get them to say, “Yes, if…” (Yes, I will buy from you, if you build this.)
Once you have PMF + a clear ICP + a repeatable sales process, then it's time to bring in professional salespeople. Rather than trying to get to “yes, if,” they will actually try to get to “no” as fast as possible. That’s why relying on seasoned sales people too early can be a real danger — it's crucial to invest time in understanding what the customer really wants.
3. Focus on creating durable barriers.
It took Flexport years to get the licensing required to operate their business. That said, it wasn’t a barrier Ryan “spent time celebrating.” Instead, he focused the company’s direction on creating better barriers, including obscuring complexity away from their customers and creating network effects.
4. Culture is important, but early on PMF is more important.
In the earliest stages, a company should focus entirely on achieving PMF and solving problems for users. That said, it’s important to establish a strong cultural foundation early as it’s a great tool to drive employee engagement and a shared commitment to the company's mission.
During periods of hyper-growth, it can be hard to lay that foundation while you’re just struggling to stay afloat. Bad cultural habits can be challenging to diagnose and cure once they have developed. Therefore, it’s crucial to keep in mind that the sooner you lay your cultural foundation, the better.
5. Evolving as a leader requires constant learning.
If you want to be successful over the long term, starting and scaling a company, you must embrace continuous learning and surround yourself with the right people.
Since he’d never worked at a big company, as Flexport grew, Ryan engaged with different types of advisors at different stages of the business, helping him learn the skills required to lead as the company evolved.
