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It's a very addictive industry. It's always on, always different. Every day is unique. You see what's happening in the world in an insane degree. I've been working on my own thing, which became Flexport. Our goal is to be an asset light technology platform for freight forwarding. And you're the most tech forward of all the companies. Kind of, we're the only one.
I think most businesses, like, actually quality costs less. It's very counterintuitive. Go deeper on that. Well, in logistics, like, all the costs come from you making a mistake. Like, if you file a customs entry and you get the wrong classification code, you're going to spend weeks on doing that. Hey, that's the game, you know? It's business. It's not a socialist project.
What did you learn from that? This is proprietary secret I'm going to let you in on. We're going to get into some of this. These tariffs have had the opposite impact that Trump would like. I think there's intention, there's some validity to it all, like some of the things I said, from national security and employment and other things. But the result has been...
Welcome to the Knowledge Project Podcast. I'm your host, Shane Parish. In a world where knowledge is power, this podcast is your toolkit for mastering the best of what other people have already figured out. U.S. Customs called Ryan Peterson with surprising news. Steve Jobs was furious. Ryan had just used public shipping records to predict Apple's secret iPhone launch.
That same contrarian thinking would build Flexport into a multi-billion dollar logistics company spanning 147 countries. But Ryan stepped down as CEO. He was certain that somebody else would do a better job. His successor hired 900 engineers in 12 months and burned through cash. Customer satisfaction crashed from 70 to 17. Paul Graham's response to Ryan's decision cut deep.
That's like saying this other guy would be a better husband for your wife. Ryan returned to a company hemorrhaging cash. The turnaround forced him to embrace micromanagement. But he discovered it was just attention to detail with bad PR. In logistics, one customs error destroys a month of efficiency gains. Most critically, he learned that every operation has a bottleneck.
You either choose it or it chooses you. In this conversation, we explore stories you won't hear anywhere else, like how he flew 500 million masks to U.S. hospitals in empty passenger planes and how tariffs accidentally push American factories overseas. We also explore the counterintuitive lessons he's learned from Charlie Munger and Peter Kaufman.
Whether you're scaling a startup or managing any complex system, Ryan's journey will reshape how you think about growth, confidence, and micromanagement. It's time to listen and learn. I love the idea of life's work, and it seems like your interest in logistics started really young. Can you tell me this story about your mom getting you to get soda?
Oh, wow. Yeah, well, my mom's a great entrepreneur. She started and sold two companies in the biotech, biochemistry space in Washington, D.C., and so I... Plus my brother and I had this job. It was like our first job was delivering soda to our office, like stacking the snacks cabinet and the sodas and stuff.
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