shipping
(10)
Yarden Gross and the art of seeing what comes next
A childhood on Lake Galilee, a detour through car diagnostics, and a surfing trip led Yarden Gross back to shipping. At Orca AI, his ambition for autonomous vessels begins with helping the people already on the bridge.
Five Months to Make a Go of It
Barbara Spector Yeninas turned a waterfront reporting beat into a business that reached its fiftieth anniversary. Along the way, she changed the guest list, mentored women and made room for a successor.
Kurt Wolf and the value hiding in the mail
He bought into Pitney Bowes, challenged its leadership, and joined its board. Now Kurt Wolf is running the company whose overlooked businesses he spent years asking investors to reconsider.
Rizwan Kermalli and the arithmetic of a small parcel
He began as a courier driver in New York. With eShipper, Rizwan Kermalli built a business around a useful proposition: small merchants become harder to overlook when their parcels travel together.
Ami Daniel and the trouble with a dot on a map
A former naval officer saw how little a ship’s position could tell you. Building Windward has meant learning to read the ocean - and learning when to stop acting like the captain.
Victor Maes and the price of the last click
He set out to help local brands sell online. The shipping bill changed the plan. At SuperFrete, Victor Maes is building a business around the moment a small seller’s customer decides whether to buy.
Anthony Dowd and the business of staying power
Paul Volcker recruited him during a financial crisis. Today, Anthony Dowd leads Fairfield-Maxwell, a family-owned enterprise whose investment horizon leaves room for another chapter.
Yasovardhan Chinni
Yasovardhan Chinni, known in the industry as YC, is a marine engineer turned entrepreneur who runs YC Ventures, a Dubai-based diversified investment group built around a maritime core. Starting from the engine room, he founded Nan Lian Ship Management in 2015 and expanded into commercial shipping, ship management, maritime fintech, marine e-commerce, and energy storage. Through YC Ventures he owns and operates a fleet of tankers, bulk carriers, and offshore vessels while backing ventures like ShipFinex, Shipskart, and Terranova Green Energy.
Albert Ko
Albert Ko is the CEO of Auctane, the Austin-based shipping software powerhouse behind ShipStation, Stamps.com, ShipEngine, and Metapack. A Korean immigrant who arrived in Los Angeles speaking Korean and Farsi but no English, Ko climbed from McKinsey consultant to Yale/Harvard-educated operator who grew Zelle into the largest peer-to-peer payments network by dollar volume — then took the helm at Auctane in June 2023 to bring operational discipline to one of the most consequential companies in global e-commerce logistics.
Ryan Petersen
Ryan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Flexport, the technology-driven freight forwarding company he built from a Y Combinator batch into an $8 billion global logistics giant. A serial entrepreneur who started importing goods from China at 17, he previously co-founded ImportGenius and has become one of the most influential voices in supply chain and trade policy - most famously by renting a boat to tour the LA port congestion in 2021 and posting a viral Twitter thread that prompted California's governor to call him directly. He is also a venture partner at Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.