Flexport founder returns to control after meeting goes the wrong way

ANDafter their first outing together, technology journalist Ryan Petersen’s wife ran away as fast as she could.

The founder and CEO of Flexport, a supply chain management software company, invited her to a musical set in Silicon Valley. It told the story of a tech executive who was dating a tech reporter, and it wasn’t clear whether it was a date or not.

The plot, it turns out, was a little too close to the point. “She left so quickly. She just walked out of there. It was so awkward,” he laughs, recounting the story.

Their next date went rather better and the couple now has two young children.

For Petersen and his former CEO Dave Clark, the fairy tale ending wasn’t entirely true,