The Great Media Arbitrage: How Craig Fuller Built FreightWaves
The Great Media Arbitrage: How Craig Fuller Built FreightWaves  
Podcast: The Peel with Turner Novak
Published On: Thu Feb 01 2024
Description: Craig Fuller is the Founder and CEO of FreightWaves, a media company and data provider for the global supply chain. He’s also the CEO of Flying Media Group, which he founded in 2021 to acquire Flying Magazine, the largest US-based print magazine for the aviation industry. This conversation is split into three parts: a crash course on logistics and supply chains, how to build and run a media company, and finally all things print magazines. Topics discussed include: (00:00) Intro (02:39) Why logistics is the most important industry no one talks about (04:23) The rise of deglobalization (11:07) How Colombia benefits from US manufacturing (14:52) Why Craig’s watching US onshoring and Mexican nearshoring (18:18) How the supply chain function is changing (28:59) The US labor availability problem (32:40) Why AI will never fully replace humans in media (34:56) The early days of FreightWaves (41:04) Predicting recessions months before it shows up in data (48:51) Why logistics is the best barometer of the global economy (52:44) Taking 12+ months to raise FreightWaves first venture round (59:24) Surviving COVID with only two months of runway (01:05:20) How FreightWaves accidentally became a media business (01:08:15) Why the best startups make low risk, high upside decisions (01:13:27) Why media business are the arbitrage opportunity this decade (01:15:55) Getting 200%+ IRR’s buying print magazines, starting with flying (01:17:50) Building his own airport and flying community (01:30:16) Almost failing to turnaround his first magazine acquisition (01:39:06) His non-intuitive lessons from building media businesses (01:43:39) Craig’s favorite media businesses (01:48:50) How to build a brand in media Referenced: https://www.freightwaves.com/ https://www.flyingmag.com/ Where to find Craig: Twitter: https://twitter.com/FreightAlley LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/incab Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://bananacapital.vc Want to sponsor the show? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform