Craig Fuller
Founder & CEO, FreightWaves. On 2 shows, 2 appearances, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveoperatorauthor@FreightAlley ↗LinkedIn ↗freightwaves.com ↗
Craig Fuller founded FreightWaves, a freight media and SaaS data platform, and Firecrown Media, which acquired publications such as FLYING and Boating. He previously founded Xpress Direct and TransCard, and authored Moving the World.
2shows
2appearances
54statements
4resolved
2supported
0contradicted
50%fully supported
20said about them ↓ Everything Craig Fuller said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Craig Fuller: The Best Thing to Give a Founder Is an Enemy
“So I would say the best thing to give a founder is an enemy.”
Fuller: 65% of supply chain news is sourced from FreightWaves
“65% of supply chain content is originally sourced from FreightWave. So if you're reading Times, you're reading it on the Washington Post, Perhaps you're reading it in Bloomberg. A lot of that data material actually gets originally sourced through our data and …”
Fuller: Media monetizes early, but SaaS builds self-sustaining momentum
“It's easier to monetize media, frankly, than it is SaaS. I don't know that a lot of people realize that. But the great thing about SaaS is it, like once you get that engine going, it's, it has its own set of momentum, which doesn't require you to put as much i…”
Flying Magazine Lost $7 Per Subscriber Annually for Over 15 Years
“They were generating, on average, eight dollars in revenue per subscriber per year, and it cost them 15 dollars to fill that subscriber. They were losing, and have since, as far back as our data went, it's 2006, losing seven dollars per subscriber”
Fuller: Firecrown acquires enthusiast media to sell high-ticket products
“You know, but what we're buying are these audiences that love the content. They're enthusiasts. And effectively by owning the magazine, which we finance through the P and L of the magazine itself, subscriptions and advertising. We make money in media, but we'r…”
Aviation Real Estate Arbitrage Comes From Adding Runways to Inland Property
“The arbitrage in aviation is that you're taking a piece of land that has beauty. It's a beautiful piece of land, but it's not next to a body of water to build a lakefront home. And so essentially what you're doing is you're taking this land and you're arbitrag…”
Fuller: Firecrown aims for $1B in revenue with no plans to sell
“Our goal is to get to a billion dollars. Like, I have no plans to sell this business.”
Firecrown Media Is Acquiring a Media Asset for Under 1x Profit
“I mean, we're doing a deal right now where it's a, you know, business about a minute and a half revenue About 600,000 dollars, and when you take out all the expenses, all the owner expenses, about 600,000 dollars a contribution, we'll, we'll pay less than one …”
Fuller: BuzzFeed sold out to programmatic ads and platform reliance
“Well, I think Buzzfeed along with a lot of other publishers have sold out to programmatic and have relied upon the platforms, the Facebooks and the.”
Fuller: Supply Chain Data Signals Economic Shifts 8 to 12 Weeks Ahead
“Supply chains, you actually see the economy eight to 12 weeks before everybody else does.”
Craig Fuller: Editorial-First Content Models Can Succeed in Any Industry
“Content supported
X models, and what I mean by that, it can work in real estate, it can work in SaaS, it can work in anything.
It's basically going at it in an editorial first mentality of developing content that will drive your audience to buy and consume you…”
Craig Fuller: 70% of FreightWaves' SaaS deals originate from its media
“70% of our deals that come into our into our enterprise SaaS business are closed because those companies read about the data on our own media business.”
Fuller: FreightWaves has zero CAC, funding R&D with media profits
“The nice thing is our customer acquisition is, is effectively zero or negative. So we have no capital tied up in direct customer acquisition. All of our capital is tied up in R&D and product.”
Fuller: FreightWaves grows 90% year-over-year while operating cash neutral
“So we're a company that doesn't burn capital. We're basically cash neutral. And we're still growing, you know, 90% on a year-over-year basis.”
Fuller: Acquiring low Rule of 40 targets depresses software valuation multiples
“They rank lower on the rule of 40 matrix, which actually is a direct correlation between how well you're positioned on that rule of 40 matrix to what your valuation is, either at exit or on a capital raise. And so If your rule of 40 is very high, which ours is…”
Fuller: US Xpress Sold to Knight-Swift for $800M at $2.5B Revenue
“Yeah, he merged it into Knight Swift which is the largest. It was the second largest trucking merger in history. The company did about two and a half billion dollars when it sold for eight hundred million.”
Craig Fuller's Family Payments Venture Reached a $500 Million Valuation
“What's funny about that business is, is that's one of the most valuable assets in the family's portfolio now. It just got a five hundred million dollar valuation last, you know, sold some stock in September of last year.”
Fuller: Acquired Flying Magazine for $3.5M with $1M deferred
“It was about, you know, total purchase price is about three and a half million when you look at. Cash and some deferred expenses and deferred payments. So it came out to about three and a half million dollars which, you know, seven times, five, you know, two a…”
Fuller: Flying Magazine subscriber base fell from 108K to 32K post-price-hike
“So we, when we bought that, it was about a 108,000 subscribers. We actually, when we raised the price, we raised the 30 initially, it actually went down to 32,000 subscribers.”
Fuller: Invested $40M across all Firecrown Media acquisitions
“You know, look, we total invested about forty million dollars in the business, but that's not flying. That's all the acquisitions we've done and everything we've acquired.”
Fly-In Community Reached $28 Million in Bookings Before Regulatory Delays
“Yeah, we actually got up to about twenty-eight million dollars in total bookings. Yeah, total reservation deposits, but we thought we were going to get through this process for environmental approval, quick zoning approval. We actually thought we'd break groun…”
Craig Fuller funded media acquisitions using personal bank debt and portfolio liquidation
“I have not raised any, my father invested when he sold his trucking business last year. So he's my only outside investor other than the initial round. Everything was done by myself. And I was just using bank debt frankly, borrowing money from banks and liquida…”
Fuller: Editorial represents only 25% of a magazine's costs
“And so typically a publisher, and here's the thing about magazines is that only 25% of the content 25% of the operations of that business actually is value added to a customer. You have audience development, you have magazine production, you have layout, like …”
The other half of the tape: Craig Fuller's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 16 times in 2 episodes across the shows. 4 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Sam Parr 11Preston Holland 5
Statements about Craig Fuller, by other people (4)
Parr: Craig Fuller predicts Firecrown will hit $1B revenue by 2030
“And it's his prediction by 2030, this side business that he started, he says, I think we can get to a billion dollars in revenue with 30% profit margins.”
Parr: Firecrown is on track to generate $50M in 2024 revenue
“So Craig has now acquired 30 or sorry, 44 different magazines and they are going to do roughly fifty million dollars this year with 18% EBITDA.”
Parr: FreightWaves generates $60M to $80M in annual subscription revenue
“It's like a large, like, 60 or eighty million dollar a year software business or subscription data business.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
My First Million 16
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 15 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Craig's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MY FIRST MILLIONLEDGER | Founder & CEO, FreightWaves | 1 | 24 | 33% 1/3 | full record on My First Million → |
 TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Founder & CEO, FreightWaves | 1 +1 | 30 | 100% 1/1 | full record on Top Founders → |