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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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We turned a Slackbot into an $11M Series A in synthetic biology

Fast Trackbiotech

7 min read·synthetic biology

We turned a Slackbot into an $11M Series A in synthetic biology

Onyx started as a weekend Slackbot that helped postdocs schedule lab equipment. Three years and a $11M Series A later, the bot is still in production.

Sana IyerOnyx Labs

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The real storiesbehind the build.

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

Every story, unfiltered.

We turned a Slackbot into an $11M Series A in synthetic biology

Built something worth telling?

The real stories
behind the build.