The inside story of Dave Clarks tumultuous last days at Flexport: Standoffs, politics, and spin

The mixed messaging from the 43-year-old Flexport founder underscores the dysfunction surrounding the sudden firing of Clark, who previously spent 23 years at Amazon and built its mammoth logistics network on the way to becoming one of Jeff Bezos top deputies. As a high-valued company backed by powerful VCs, Flexport has been trying to simultaneously operate in Silicon Valley startup growth mode while also restraining expenses to reflect the new economic realities and to cope with supply chain bottlenecks. Petersen is also a venture partner at Founders Fund, the firm started by Peter Thiel, who was a prominent supporter of President Trumps 2016 campaign and more recently bankrolled Senate candidates in Ohio and Arizona. On Sept. 12, almost a week after Clark was fired, Flexport executives convened in Seattle to launch an end-to-end supply chain service that would allow sellers to move their products from factories to customers doorsteps through integrations with major online marketplaces. In a conference room, about 50 people looked on as Sadrzadeh debuted Flexports service and then introduced Petersen, who spoke for roughly 20 minutes, according to Burak Yolga, co-founder of a digital freight forwarding company who was in attendance.