Flexport's Ryan Petersen Joins Venture Firm Founders Fund as a Partner
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This article covers Ryan Petersen joining Founders Fund as a partner. It has minimal direct relevance to AI safety, touching tangentially on venture capital dynamics that fund some AI companies.
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Summary
Flexport founder Ryan Petersen has joined Founders Fund as a partner after stepping down as CEO. He will invest as a generalist from San Francisco, bringing experience from backing over 100 startups as an angel investor. Petersen cited Founders Fund's founder-friendly philosophy as the key reason for joining.
Key Points
- •Ryan Petersen, founder of logistics startup Flexport, joined Founders Fund as a partner after transitioning to executive chairman role.
- •Petersen had previously angel-invested in 100+ startups including Rippling, Mercury, Faire, and Carta.
- •Founders Fund was an early and ongoing investor in Flexport, which raised $2.4B total and was valued at $8B.
- •Petersen praised Founders Fund for changing VC culture by backing founders rather than replacing them with seasoned CEOs.
- •He will invest as a generalist, interested in innovative companies regardless of stage or industry.
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Flexport founder 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 also told TechCrunch via email: “I never thought about becoming a VC. When I moved to the chairman role a dozen or so VC firms reached out to me, but I didn’t entertain any of them besides Founders Fund. They are super aligned with me both in my desire to continue to support Flexport with as much of my energy as I can and with their overall philosophy of backing founders all the way. The team here changed the course of VC history by upending the previous model where VCs would seek to replace the founder with a more seasoned CEO. Founders Fund doesn’t get enough credit for their role in changing the culture of the wider VC world. I’m excited to work with our portfolio founders, both new and existing, to help them build and run generational companies.”
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 100 startups , such as Rippling, Mercury , Faire, Eight Sleep, Carta and Pulley . He will be based in San Francisco and invest as a “generalist” for Founders Fund.
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