The bet that saved FedEx
winner takes it all
We know FedEx today as a $70 billion global logistics giant.
One of the key ingredients of The American dream is a humble beginning and FedEx was no exception.
In its early days, FedEx was denied a loan the company was dependent on and had only $5k in cash reserves.
One night, CEO Fred Smith took that 5k to a blackjack table in a Las Vegas casino and won $27,000 that kept them floating for another couple of weeks.
The rest is history.
Robert Frock (one of the founding executives of FedEx) recounts the episode in his book, Changing How the World Does Business: Fedex’s Incredible Journey to Success - The Inside Story.
“I asked Fred where the funds had come from, and he responded, ‘The meeting with the General Dynamics board was a bust and I knew we needed money for Monday, so I took a plane to Las Vegas and won $27,000.’ I said, ‘You mean you took our last $5,000— how could you do that?’ He shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘What difference does it make? Without the funds for the fuel companies, we couldn’t have flown anyway.’ Fred’s luck held again. It was not much, but it came at a critical time and kept us in business for another week.”
Fascinating right?
We are going to hear some incredible survival stories like this in the coming months after pandemic. What’s even more incredible would be our collective effort and grit going through difficult times, regardless of the outcome
Fun Fact of the week: Sequoia Capital funds
- Zoom the video comms startup
- Loom, the screencasting startup
- Noom, the wellness/weight-loss startup
- Xoom, the money-transfer startup
Now you know what to rhyme with to get Sequoia $$ 🙃