Flexport Looks To Ditch Offices 'Around The World' After CEO Shake-Up
Digital-focused freighting company Flexport is looking to aggressively reduce costs after a leadership shake-up, with its new CEO publicly announcing dozens of revoked job offers and calling for takers for chunks of its global office footprint.
New CEO and founder Ryan Petersen — who returned to the top post at the company this week, replacing former Amazon executive Dave Clark in a surprise shake-up — announced the moves via social media. He singled out office space in San Francisco, where the company is headquartered, as well as New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas that the company is looking to sublease.
"We have way too much for our size—we rented space for a 2x bigger team!!" Petersen wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "New official flexport real estate policy is we don't get new office space til there's always a line at the bathroom in the current office space."
Flexport has grade A office space to sublease in San Francisco (former Dropbox HQ, the place has good juju!!), Playa Vista LA (next to google), NYC (across from Eataly), Dallas (Old Parkland) and all around the world.
— Ryan Petersen (@typesfast) September 8, 2023
Hit me up if you're startup is looking for awesome space in…
The company has 30K SF in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood in a lease it signed in June 2021, Crain’s New York Business reported at the time. The Dallas Morning News reported in June that the firm signed a 50K SF lease in the city’s Galleria Towers, although Petersen's post indicated it would sublease space in the exclusive Old Parkland office complex developed by Crow Holdings.
Flexport occupies less than 10K SF at 12121 Bluff Creek Drive in Playa Vista, according to Compstak. Its San Francisco office is a 760 Market St., according to its website.
Flexport has offices in 29 cities around the world including Atlanta, Phoenix, Miami, Amsterdam, Seoul and Singapore, according to its website, although its total office footprint is unknown. Flexport didn't respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
Petersen’s decision as returning CEO was accompanied by another announcement: Flexport is rescinding the employment offers of more than 75 people who were hired during Clark's leadership tenure.
Flexport is rescinding a bunch of signed offer letters for people who were starting as soon as this Monday. I am deeply sorry to those people who were expecting to join our company and won't be able to at this time. It's messed up. But no way around it, we have had a hiring…
— Ryan Petersen (@typesfast) September 8, 2023
The 10-year-old company has raised $2.3B from investors to date, including from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank’s Vision Fund, The Wall Street Journal reported. Following a February 2022 fundraising round, Flexport was valued at $8B, reporting gross revenues of $3.3B at the end of 2021.
Flexport has begun to take losses and laid off 700 workers — 20% of its workforce — earlier this year, per reporting from FreightWaves. However, the company still has $1B in cash and a “fortress balance sheet,” Petersen said on Wednesday. He added that the company was looking to focus on profitability in the short term.
Under Amazon veteran Clark’s leadership, Flexport acquired Shopify’s logistics operations and hired other former Amazon executives. Clark’s next move may be a run for Texas governor.
