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Ryan Petersen: Flexport, Founder Mode, and the Return of the Founder-CEO

Ryan Petersen founded Flexport in 2013. He stepped back in 2022. He returned in 2023 to steer the company through the freight downturn. Along the way, Paul Graham's Founder Mode essay used his story as the anchor.

Ryan Petersen

Flexport

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I wrote my own resignation, then my cofounder rewrote our entire pricing model

Fast Trackpricing

5 min read·creator economy

I wrote my own resignation, then my cofounder rewrote our entire pricing model

On a Tuesday morning Aliyah typed her resignation in a Google Doc. By Friday the company had a new pricing page, a new ICP, and the first profitable month it had ever seen.

Aliyah BoatengMainline

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The real storiesbehind the build.

Ryan Petersen: Flexport, Founder Mode, and the Return of the Founder-CEO

Every story, unfiltered.

I wrote my own resignation, then my cofounder rewrote our entire pricing model

Built something worth telling?

The real stories
behind the build.