Control Your Freight Forwarders

23 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, Lara Guevara warns founders that relying on vendors' freight forwarder partners is risky because it limits control and visibility over shipments. She highlights current challenges such as tariffs, shipment delays, and port congestion, emphasizing that not knowing the actual freight forwarder leaves companies blind to issues. Lara advises businesses to identify their own freight forwarder, obtain the Bill of Lading (BOL) number or other tracking identifiers, and use readily available API‑free tracking applications to monitor where their products are in transit, giving them real‑time insight into ocean freight movements.

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You just— most of the founders I know, they just rely on the freight forwarder partners of their vendors. They don't have their own networks, and that's very dangerous because you cannot control it. And it's a lot of things happening right now, the tariff, the delays in shipment, port congestion. If you don't know who is sending your product and there's a middleman in it, You're blinded. If you know the freight forwarder and you get the BOL number or any tracking and you can track it for— in so many API-free apps right now, then you have idea what part of the ocean your product is in.