Founder Stories

The real stories
behind the build.

Five-act journeys from founders worth listening to. Problem, journey, struggles, breakthrough, lessons — editor-curated, never pay-to-post.

Stories

140

Industries

Weekly

Curation

Browse stories Pitch your story

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

All Stories

Every story, unfiltered.

42 stories — curated, never paid placement. Filter by what you’re building.

We won the contract by losing the demo on purpose

Founder Storysecurity

5 min read·enterprise sales

We won the contract by losing the demo on purpose

Most of our competitors had slicker demos. We chose to break ours live, on camera, in front of a Fortune 500 security team. We got the contract.

Reuben LarssonCoastal Security

Read →

Submit your story

Built something worth telling?

Editor-curated, never pay-to-post. We work with you to shape the real arc — five acts, no fluff. You hold final approval.

Pitch your story

The real storiesbehind the build.

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

Every story, unfiltered.

We won the contract by losing the demo on purpose

Built something worth telling?

The real stories
behind the build.