Creating a startup that competes with your former employer can be risky. For example, Apple once sued a former chip design executive who founded his own chip startup in a case Falled In 2023.
A recent case involving logistics unicorn Flexport and a new competitor made up of two former employees illuminates these risks.
Flexport filed a lawsuit alleging that they stole thousands of documents along with their source code to create their own rival startup, Freightmate AI.
Both startups use technology to automate complex logistics and transportation processes.
Flexport said it believes that Jason Zhao, chief operating officer of freighters, downloaded more than 70,000 confidential Flexport files after agreeing to form Fleightmate with now Ceo Bryan Lacaillade. litigationfiled in California court last week.
Flexport claims Zhao took steps to hide its tracks, such as using incognito mode on the browser to copy the list of more than 1,000 Flexport customers. Zhao also downloaded the source code of Flexport from Github to his USB drive, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges that the freighter admitted to owning certain documents from Flexport but said the documents were “unintentionally retained” and were not accessed or used by freighters.
Flexport declined to comment. Freightmate did not respond to a request for comment.
Flexport claims that the freighters recently touted by freighters would be “nearly impossible” if no information was stolen. It is suing unspecified damages and a court injunction that could be used to prevent freighters from using so-called data.
Flexport is headquartered in San Francisco and is worth $8 billion in 2022 Funding rebate. recent grow up Shopify provided $260 million in a 2023 undisclosed valuation.
Freightmate is headquartered near Seattle and raised $5 million in seed rounds in January 2025 lead Washington state venture capital firm Fuse Capital. Its pre-discount, its quantity has not been disclosed, Being led By Winschoff Ventures.
