Flexport’s Ryan Petersen joins venture firm Founders Fund as a partner

Flexport founder toptechtrends.com/2016/06/07/flexport/”>Ryan Petersen has joined venture capital firm Founders Fund as a partner, as reported by Forbes earlier today.

Founders Fund confirmed the move to TechCrunch, providing the following statement from General Partner Trae Stephens: “We’ve always struggled to define the quintessential Founders Fund founder. Clearly, it’s Ryan. We’re thrilled to welcome him to the team.”

Petersen — who stepped down as CEO of Flexport last August — himself acknowledged the move on Twitter, with a tweet saying:

I have joined Founders Fund. If you are someone who’s out to get revenge after having been wronged by a previous employer or investor, a French technical founder who fled socialism to build your company in America, or a Christ-like figure of any kind, please get in touch.

Petersen founded Flexport, a logistics startup that raised $2.4 billion in funding since its 2013 inception, according to Crunchbase. Founders Fund was an early investor in the company, which last raised in February of 2022 — a $935 million Series E co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and MSD Partners that valued the company at $8 billion. Founders Fund participated in that round as well.

The new role won’t be a huge leap for Petersen considering that over the years, he has backed as an angel investor over 50 startups, such as Teleport, Repool and construction tech startup toptechtrends.com/2022/06/02/pulley-raises-4-4m-seed-to-shorten-the-construction-permitting-process-from-months-to-days-with-its-software/”>Pulley, according to Crunchbase. He will be based in San Francisco.

Over the years, Flexport was hailed for being able to grow so successfully despite operating in toptechtrends.com/2016/06/07/flexport/”>a decidedly unsexy industry. TechCrunch former reporter Josh Constine wrote toptechtrends.com/2020/04/26/ryan-petersen-flexport/”>this feature about how Petersen and the company were stepping up in the war against COVID. Using freight software it built, the full-service air, rail truck and ocean freight forwarder doubled revenue to $3.3 billion in 2021, moving almost $19 billion in gross merchandise through its platform. And Petersen told the American Journal of Transportation in March that Flexport’s estimated 2022 revenue was $5 billion. 

Last month, TechCrunch reported on Kaitlyn Glancy, who had spent more than eight years with Flexport — the last four of them as the outfit’s vice president of North America — announcing that she had joined the world of VC as the toptechtrends.com/2023/06/22/kaitlyn-glancy-long-flexports-vp-of-north-america-just-joined-the-world-of-vc/”>newest partner at the venture firm Eclipse.

Interestingly, Founders Fund also last September reported that fintech startup Brex’s former chief revenue officer, Sam Blond, was becoming toptechtrends.com/2022/09/04/fintech-brex-founders-fund-interchange/”>a partner at Founders Fund.

toptechtrends.com/2023/07/10/flexports-ryan-petersen-joins-venture-firm-founders-fund-as-a-partner/”>Flexport’s Ryan Petersen joins venture firm Founders Fund as a partner by toptechtrends.com/author/mary-ann-azevedo-2/”>Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on toptechtrends.com/”>TechCrunch