While no one needs convincing about the importance of data today, the same couldn’t be said nearly a decade ago, when two entrepreneurs went knocking on doors in Silicon Valley, looking for investors to fund their logistics start-up. Their elevator pitch? To make global logistics more efficient with software optimization.
The start-up was Flexport, and its founder is Ryan Petersen, then an importer of Chinese motorbikes who, frustrated by the complexities of the logistics process, was on a mission to make global trade easy for everyone. “A common response was, ‘Oh, we don’t need the internet in this industry. Logistics is all relationships-driven,’” recalls Sanne Manders,…