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.

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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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Our open-source repo had 30,000 stars and four customers

Founder Storyopen source

5 min read·observability

Our open-source repo had 30,000 stars and four customers

The GitHub graph was beautiful. The bank account was not. Here's how a popular open-source observability project found the commercial wedge hiding inside its own community.

Talia ReisBeacon

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The real storiesbehind the build.

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

Every story, unfiltered.

Our open-source repo had 30,000 stars and four customers

Built something worth telling?

The real stories
behind the build.