The talent files: From local government to logistics startup

Vector’s Sarah Flamm took the scenic route from Silicon Valley to D.C. and back again

Yes, Sarah Flamm grew up in Silicon Valley, but working at a tech startup wasn’t a given.

The former transportation and immigration policy analyst made the leap from local government to San Francisco logistics tech provider Vector earlier this year, after a crash course in global trade and a cross-country road trip piqued her interest in the future of freight.

In a conversation edited for length and clarity, Flamm shared what she learned after two months talking to truckers across America and how startup life compares to the public sector.

VECTOR: I hear you’re one of the elusive people who works at a startup and actually grew up in Silicon Valley.

SARAH FLAMM: I was actually born in New Jersey, but yes, I moved to Palo Alto when I was two. All of my education, embarrassingly, has been at Stanford. I went to preschool at Stanford, then the Palo Alto school system, and back to Stanford. I also lived in DC for a few years.

How did you narrow down what types of careers you might ultimately be interested in?

My mom’s a public interest attorney, and I’ve kind of followed that path doing public service and nonprofit work. I always thought I’d be working in the public sector, but one of the things I’ve seen is just this divide between local businesses and government, especially in San Francisco.

I worked on improving immigration policy for a while, and still do in my role as a community member and volunteer, and I was frustrated like so many others to see such important issues be unresolved for irrational reasons. I turned towards international trade policy, which is slightly less emotional for people. It involves a bunch of different actors, and it’s also global.

And freight and logistics is right in the middle of that. Was that always something you had an interest in?

At Stanford it’s pretty abstract, more philosophical. The turning point for me was being in an international trade law class. I loved it.

I actually went to Geneva with the Model World Trade Organization in 2016 to do a mock trade negotiation. We got really into the nitty gritty of goods and tariffs and GATT regulations. I was the U.S. representative amongst 150 other international students. We worked with our teams to negotiate, and I was basically the American in the room.

Which ultimately led to working in local government in California, right?

I was a policy aid for Santa Clara County focused on transportation policy. At the end of the day, the commute was just not feasible from San Francisco to San Jose, so I quit my job in tandem with my friend who was going to do a cross-country road trip.

I went around the country for two months seeing the road, seeing the truck drivers, seeing kind of what life on the road was like. That got me even more interested in what movement of goods looked like in America. My friend runs a software company in the transportation space called Badger Maps, so we were going around and talking to potential customers — a seed farmer in Indiana, just different characters.

What convinced you that it might be time for a career change to startups?

I was like, ‘Wow, sales is fun.’ I love talking to people and helping them solve problems that they have. I was looking at different companies in San Francisco and found Vector. I liked that it was an engineering-focused company with a good product.

Now that you’re working in the space full time, what types of problems are you hearing about directly from trucking companies?

Obviously people can be averse to change, but we want everyone to be able to keep up. Most people have duct-taped a solution in place, and they don’t necessarily know that they could be doing it a better way.

Not to generalize, but one interesting thing I’ve found is that immigrant-run businesses are really open to considering alternative solutions to what they’re doing. I think sometimes, especially if there’s a language barrier, people don’t necessarily take the time to reach out and explain things. Once they get it, it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, we do need that. And wait — how did you even hear about us?’

What about some of the new transportation technologies coming down the pike? Is that something in your blood from growing up in Palo Alto?

Yeah, no. It’s ironic. I’m from Palo Alto, but I think old school Palo Alto is a little more earthy, head to the ground. My parents are pretty hippy, so I grew up with no video games, no TV. Just sports. Soccer was my main focus.

Technology is a tool for me, less than a source of recreation. I can understand people wanting to be in the real world, driving a truck, instead of being on a computer all the time.

So how is startup life treating you a few months in?

I’m a competitive person, so I’m excited. I can create my own amount of work, and I’m on my feet all day. It’s just go, go, go.

You get to see a lot of progress, and since it’s a small group, you can see when you make a contribution. It’s fun to see the company growing.