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Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen’s High-Stakes Test Amid Tariff Turmoil: “You Can’t Be Freaking Out”

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen told anxious customers that leaders must stay composed during tariff uncertainty. The April 2025 episode highlights why calm leadership matters—and why sourcing decisions need more than a quick reaction.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read
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After the tariff announcement of April 2, 2025, Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen faced a virtual room of more than 2,300 anxious customers seeking answers. His message was about leadership as much as logistics: when a company’s plans are suddenly uncertain, leaders should stay composed because employees take their cue from them. The tariff details discussed at the time are a historical snapshot, not a guide to current rates or customs rules.

What happened after the April 2025 tariff announcement?

In a report published April 7, 2025, TechCrunch described Petersen speaking to more than 2,300 Flexport customers by livestream after the April 2 announcement. Importers wanted help understanding how the changes could affect duties, customs treatment, shipping costs and fulfillment. Petersen had studied the policy details before addressing their questions.

The report covered several developments then announced or proposed, including tariffs affecting goods from China and other countries, changes to the de minimis treatment of low-value imports, and a proposed fee on certain Chinese-built ships. It described the situation as it stood in April 2025. It does not establish what rates, exemptions, deadlines or legal requirements apply now.

The company was also fielding questions about where goods were made and how orders reached customers. Petersen told TechCrunch that many of the customers he had spoken with relied on production in Vietnam. He also estimated that more than 30% of large e-commerce brands had fulfillment set up in Mexico. That figure was Petersen’s reported estimate, not a market statistic substantiated by a published study in the article.

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Why did Petersen say a leader cannot be freaking out?

Petersen told TechCrunch: “Rule one in a crisis is everybody will rally around the calmest person in the room.” He followed with a more direct warning: “You know, you’re the leader of a company. You can’t be freaking out, even if you are inside; your company will freak out.”

His point was not that executives should ignore risk or conceal information. When employees see a leader panic, they may treat uncertainty as proof that the situation is unmanageable. A composed response gives people room to assess what is known, separate immediate decisions from longer-term ones, and keep serving customers while facts are still developing.

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That composure has limits: calm is not a substitute for checking the rules or preparing for financial exposure. The practical leadership test is to acknowledge uncertainty without turning a fast-moving policy announcement into a confident prediction about what will happen next.

What role did Flexport play for importers?

Flexport is a global logistics and customs brokerage firm. In the TechCrunch account, customers were looking to the company to help interpret tariff tables, customs rules and shipping costs. Later Fast Company coverage likewise described Flexport as a customs broker helping companies determine and pay duties.

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That is a service role, not a guarantee that one company can resolve every importer’s legal, tax or operational questions. Businesses may need to verify classifications and obligations with qualified customs or legal professionals, and any decision should be based on the rules applicable to the particular goods, route and date.

What should importers consider before changing suppliers or routes?

A tariff shock can prompt companies to consider moving production, changing shipping arrangements or shifting fulfillment. But a change that looks attractive on a duty calculation alone can carry other costs and risks. The interviews support assessing the following factors together rather than assuming that a different country will automatically be cheaper:

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  • Total landed cost: Compare duties and freight with the other costs of getting goods to customers, using rules and rates verified for the relevant date.
  • Time and execution: A sourcing change may require supplier qualification, production planning and logistics work. Petersen later cautioned that some moves take years to execute.
  • Concentration: Assess how dependent the business is on a supplier, country or route, as well as the practical alternatives available.
  • Customs and compliance exposure: Confirm how goods are classified and what customs treatment applies instead of relying on broad assumptions about a product or country.
  • Reversibility: Consider whether the business can adjust again if policy changes before a costly relocation pays off.

These are decision dimensions, not a ranking of countries or a current cost comparison. The cited interviews do not provide a data-backed answer to which sourcing location is best for a particular company.

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Why might waiting be sensible—and when might it not be?

In an abridged Fast Company interview published in November 2025, Petersen said, “Sometimes the best thing is to do nothing.” He was referring to staying calm while policy changes and to the risk of making a major production move that takes years to complete. The advice is a caution against reacting impulsively, not a universal recommendation to delay.

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Waiting can preserve flexibility when the policy picture is unsettled and a move would be expensive or difficult to reverse. It can be the wrong choice if the business has an immediate compliance obligation, cannot absorb a cost increase, or needs lead time to build a viable alternative. The decision depends on the company’s exposure, timeline and ability to adapt—not on calmness alone.

In the same November 2025 interview, Petersen offered his opinion: “You win a trade war by just not having one and doing trade in both parties.” That is his view on trade policy, not a neutral finding or an established outcome.

What do the reported figures—and the uncertainty—actually show?

The April 2025 TechCrunch account reported that Petersen had spoken with 200 customers in person that year. It also reported his estimate that more than 30% of large e-commerce brands had fulfillment in Mexico. Neither figure was accompanied in the article by an underlying dataset or published market study. They help describe the conversations Petersen said he was having, but should not be treated as representative measures of the whole market.

TechCrunch also described a proposed fee of up to $1.5 million per port call for certain Chinese-built ships. That was a proposal discussed in the April 2025 report, not evidence of a fee currently in effect. The article described Flexport as 12 years old at that time; that is a time-specific description, not the company’s present age.

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Separate 2025 coverage included conditional forecasts by Petersen about Flexport’s profitability amid the policy uncertainty. Those comments were forecasts, not proof of the company’s eventual financial result. More broadly, the interviews do not settle the current tariff schedule or customs rules. Importers need current, situation-specific information before making a filing, shipment or sourcing decision.

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