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The unsexiest trillion-dollar startup
Tech Crunch ^ | June 7, 2016 | Josh Constine

Posted on 06/08/2016 12:24:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Steve Jobs went ballistic when public shipping manifests leaked the existence of the iPhone 3G. That’s about the only time something exciting happened in the freight forwarding business. The circulatory system of the global economy is a trillion-dollar industry, yet no one really talks about it, or builds tech for it.

That’s what makes freight such a massive disruption opportunity for a startup like Flexport.

Transparency begets data, which begets efficiency. Smarter shipping shrinks the physical world the way faster internet shrinks the digital one. New businesses emerge. High bandwidth connections paved the way for Netflix. Now Flexport could make meatspace merchants as nimble as Amazon.

With $26.9 million in funding, Flexport grew the volume of goods it ships by 16X this year. Y Combinator president Paul Graham says “Flexport is one of that small handful of startups that are going to change the world.” Freight might finally be getting the weight of attention it deserves....

(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Travel
KEYWORDS: freight

1 posted on 06/08/2016 12:24:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: Vendome; farlander

Ping!


2 posted on 06/08/2016 12:24:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ping


3 posted on 06/08/2016 12:28:41 PM PDT by IChing (Nuke Mecca already)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Flexport website
4 posted on 06/08/2016 12:36:37 PM PDT by Robert DeLong (u)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Federal Express (now FedEx) was the major disruptor in logistics.

When Fred Smith tried to explain why shipping a package from New York to Memphis, TN, then from Memphis to Newark was the fastest way to get a package overnight, nobody believed him.

5 posted on 06/08/2016 12:39:43 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Malcolm McLean and Keith Tantlinger by inventing the shipping container has had more practical impact on the world than some stupid iPhone so one can be more entertained wasting time. Good luck to this startup.


6 posted on 06/08/2016 12:45:59 PM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

Bump your post.

You beat me to it.


7 posted on 06/08/2016 1:09:39 PM PDT by Rockpile (GOP legislators-----caviar eating surrender monkeys.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Looks to be one more link in the chain of domination of the globalist agenda.


8 posted on 06/08/2016 1:19:32 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
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To: 21twelve; 2ndDivisionVet

this is an extension of more efficient in-country shipping and was bound to happen. That being said, these guys have got first-mover advantage.


9 posted on 06/09/2016 1:23:17 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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