Below is an email sent to Flexport employees from Ryan Petersen, Founder and Executive Chairman of Flexport, on July 10, 2023.
Today we are announcing that I am joining Founders Fund as a partner. I’ll continue to be active in my role as Flexport’s Executive Chairman, especially supporting our growth initiatives, meeting with customers, and building our brand as the leading technology platform for global logistics. I’ll also actively support Flexport.org’s mission to use our platform to address humanity’s biggest challenges.
From my new perch as an investor, I will have privileged access to the intersection of technology and capital markets, a position that will greatly assist Flexport’s road to being an enduring public company over the decades to come. Dave Clark, and the wider Flexport leadership team, are super well positioned to lead us on that mission. With the company in such good hands, the timing is good for me to take on new challenges.
Founders Fund was the only venture capital firm I considered, in large part because they have real skin in the game here at Flexport—they have participated in every one of our funding rounds, and led two of them. I’m thrilled to join a group of Founders Fund partners who are actively leading companies even as they manage a top tier venture capital fund. And the firm is actively encouraging me to continue supporting Flexport in the years to come.
I love investing in technology companies and supporting founders on the roller coaster ride of company building. Over the last decade I’ve made more than 100 angel investments, including in industry leaders such as Rippling, Carta, Verkada, Mercury, Algolia, Deel, Deliverr, and many other great companies.
My angel investing practice has helped Flexport plug in to the technology and venture capital ecosystems, which in turn provided us with access to knowledge, talent, and capital that provided a competitive advantage over would-be competitors. I expect that in my new role as a full time investor at Founders Fund I’ll be even better positioned to support Dave and the company as I’m exposed to the most cutting edge ideas, technology, and talent from across the ecosystem.
