Flexport founder Ryan Petersen claimed in public that Dave Clark's tenure as CEO featured too much spending, but internal documents tell a different story
Immediately following Dave Clark's abrupt ouster as CEO of Flexport, founder Ryan Petersen said the company was hiring too aggressively and needed to rein in spending.
This account is based on conversations with people close to Clark and Petersen. They requested anonymity to discuss confidential interactions. Their perspectives have been corroborated by internal documents and communications reviewed by CNBC. Among Clark's goals was to help Petersen prepare Flexport for an IPO, something the company had discussed doing within a two- to three-year window, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents viewed by CNBC.in June 2022. "Mine are much more creative, zero-to-one founder time, and Dave is the supreme executor and a legend in the supply chain world."
Petersen didn't respond to calls or messages from CNBC, and the company declined to make him available for an interview. A Flexport spokesperson didn't respond to CNBC's question about whether Petersen was aware of concerns about his statement at the event.Clark's first quarterly board meeting as sole CEO was June 1. His second was Aug. 31, days before he was forced out.
A source close to Petersen told CNBC that the meeting went poorly for Clark because a so-called "whistleblower" — identified as a senior finance executive — stepped forward shortly before it began and told Petersen that the numbers being presented were "not real." Five hours after the letter was sent, the source close to Petersen contacted CNBC and asked to retract their statements and all details related to Clark's firing or about the so-called whistleblower. CNBC declined to retract his statements.The letter cited two documents that had been presented to the board. Both were viewed by CNBC. The first was a pre-acquisition financial analysis of the Deliverr deal, and the second was a review of Flexport's first-quarter numbers.
Clark declined, the person said. Shortly after Flexport reached out with the offer, Clark took the stage at the same supply chain conference in Phoenix that Petersen spoke at earlier in the day."The only thing I really regret from the past year was I sort of picked the wrong founder," Clark said. "Basically, it was a place of extending my reputational halo to a group that, in my opinion, didn't deserve it.
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