Saman Farid On Raising $60 Million To Build A Robotics-As-A-Service Company, Delivering Robotic Automation At Low Hourly Rates

Saman Farid is no stranger to reinvention. From growing up as a cultural misfit in China to leading groundbreaking ventures in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), Saman’s journey is a testament to resilience, curiosity, and a lifelong commitment to solving problems.

Saman’s latest venture, Formic, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Alumni Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Calm Ventures, Chapter One, and FJ Labs.

In this episode, you will learn:

• A cohesive, adaptable team can iterate its way from a wrong strategy to the right one.
• Entrepreneurs should start with the mindset that their initial idea is likely incorrect and focus on building systems to iterate and improve.
• The original business idea is rarely what succeeds; flexibility and evolution are key.
• Venture capitalists should prioritize funding adaptable teams over rigidly backing specific ideas or theses.
• Writing an investment thesis is useful, but real success lies in listening to entrepreneurs and adapting to their challenges.
• Both startups and investors must embrace iteration as a core principle for finding the right solutions.
• Building mechanisms for continuous learning and adaptation is critical for long-term success.

 

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About Saman Farid:

Saman Farid is the founder and CEO of Formic and lives in the San Francisco Bay area. At Formic, they provide robotics to increase the productivity and capacity of factories across the US.

Prior to this, Saman ran the global investment fund for Baidu Ventures, focusing on AI, Machine Learning, and its effects on the way we work and live. He is also the founder of Comet Labs – an AI-focused investment fund and incubator.

Prior to working as an investor, Saman built and sold two technology companies (an e-commerce business and an IP Television infrastructure company), worked on technology infrastructure projects in alternative energy and had short stints at Verizon, Microsoft, and Honeywell.

Some of Saman’s past experiences are outlined on Linkedin. He is also passionate about youth empowerment and works with East Bay Lights when possible.

Connect with Saman Farid:

• LinkedIn
• Crunchbase
• RocketReach
• Saman.co

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: Alrighty. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Dealmakers Show! Today, we have an amazing guest—a founder-turned-investor, and investor-turned-founder. He’s experienced both sides of the table and has plenty of insights to share. We’ll be learning about building, scaling, financing, and pattern recognition when it comes to investing in companies. In his case, we’ll also hear about how his current company almost ran out of runway.

This is going to be a very inspiring conversation. Without further ado, let’s welcome our guest today, Saman Farid. Welcome to the show!

Saman Farid: Thanks so much for having me, Alejandro. I’m excited to be here.

Alejandro Cremades: So, originally, your story is quite fascinating. Your parents are Iranian-American, but you spent most of your childhood in China. Walk us down memory lane—what was life like growing up for you?

Saman Farid: Yeah, you know, I was always a bit of a misfit—and I say that with pride. My parents moved to China when I was six years old, and I attended public Chinese school. I was the only non-Chinese student there for most of my time.

I’m incredibly thankful for that experience. It gave me an outsider’s perspective on the world I was in. I was also in China during a transformative period. When we first moved to Beijing, it had dirt roads, and donkeys carried bricks down the street. By the time I left at 18, it was a modern metropolis with every amenity imaginable, including Starbucks on every corner.

That transformation was fascinating to witness. At the same time, having family in the U.S. and being part of multiple cultures—third culture, fourth culture—helped me observe how these parallel worlds evolved. It shaped how I see things today, which has been incredibly valuable in my entrepreneurial journey.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing! How did you first get into engineering? It sounds like problem-solving was something you had a knack for early on.

Saman Farid: Yeah, my dad was an engineer, and I had a reputation for breaking every electronic device in the house—TVs, phones, you name it. Most of the time, I could put them back together, but not always successfully! I got zapped more times than I can count.

My dad loved to play this game with us called Rajeb—which means “about” in Farsi. We’d point to something, and he’d explain how it worked. It was an incredible education that sparked my curiosity about how things function.

By age 14, I started my first company, building computers and setting up local networks for small businesses. That desire to build and understand how things work never left me. I eventually went on to study engineering in college.

Alejandro Cremades: So, after running your first business at 14 and studying engineering, your first stop was corporate—Honeywell, right? What did you take away from working in the corporate world before venturing out on your own?

Saman Farid: I realized something pretty quickly: I’m not a great employee. I have a hard time following instructions! I interned at Honeywell, Verizon, and a consulting firm while in college, and those experiences taught me a lot about how the corporate world operates—like how to write emails, send calendar invites, and manage professional etiquette.

However, I didn’t stay long enough to become too indoctrinated. Instead, I saw what worked and rejected what didn’t align with how I wanted to work. Corporate environments didn’t seem to maximize productivity or creativity.

After that, I joined a startup called GPU, a clean energy company building manufacturing facilities across China. It was a hybrid environment compared to a large corporation. Everyone had to wear multiple hats, and each day brought new challenges. That experience taught me resilience and the value of common-sense problem-solving over rigid corporate hierarchies.

Alejandro Cremades: Let’s talk about the point where you decided to take the leap and start your own company.

Saman Farid: Eventually, I left my job to pursue my entrepreneurial ambitions. I had relationships with people building software infrastructure, and I was passionate about software. So, I started pulling together the components for a voice-over-IP and internet television platform.

It was my first time building a company entirely on my own since I was 14. It wasn’t a massive breakout success, but it taught me a lot—how to manage people, prioritize effectively, and say no to good ideas that didn’t align with urgent priorities.

Ultimately, I sold the company. That first full-cycle entrepreneurial experience was an emotional journey. As a founder, you start with grand ideas, but reality often punches you in the face.

Alejandro Cremades: What was it like going through the full cycle—starting, running, and eventually selling the business?

Saman Farid: It was a learning experience, to say the least. One of my investors, Gary Tan—now president of YC—gave me great advice for my current company: “The main thing you need to do as a startup is to stay alive long enough.”

Startups go through ups and downs. The ones that survive those cycles are the ones that succeed. Looking back, I wish I had known that earlier. At the time, we missed a few targets, and one of our partners made an offer to buy the business. It wasn’t at a high price, but it felt like a good resolution to a tumultuous journey.

That experience also gave me a better understanding of why VCs like second-time founders. The first time around, you learn what not to do. The second time, you have clearer direction and more fire in your belly.

Alejandro Cremades: After selling your company, you transitioned to investing. How did that shift come about?

Saman Farid: Initially, I didn’t plan to become a VC. One of my investors invited me to join their firm while I figured out my next move. What was supposed to be a short-term stint turned into an incredible learning experience.

I got to meet amazing entrepreneurs and dive into the emerging world of AI. This was in the early 2010s when deep learning started revolutionizing computer vision, voice recognition, and data analysis. I became fascinated with how AI could transform industries beyond pure software.

Eventually, the firm seeded me to start my own venture fund, Comet Labs. We raised $50 million and focused on applying AI to industries like agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and healthcare. Over the years, we funded about 40 companies.

Later, Baidu invited me to run their $600 million AI fund, which focused on scaling these types of investments globally. That experience took everything to the next level—larger investments, multi-stage funding, and leveraging resources like GPU clusters and data annotation capabilities to help entrepreneurs grow faster.

Saman Farid: As all these things started to happen, we were still nearing the end of our capital runway. However, an investor came in, believed in the vision we were building, and helped secure funding for the next round. At the time, we were trying to raise $25 million, and this investor initially committed $8 million. While it was still far from our goal, their involvement created momentum.

Quickly, we saw other investors, who had been on the sidelines, join the round. This built enough momentum to keep us moving forward and ultimately ensured our survival.

As a founder, it’s very tempting to come up with new ideas every day, but you often have to tell yourself “no.” That’s a hard thing for me to do.

Alejandro Cremades: Obviously, the investors who joined believed in your vision and innovation. When it comes to that vision, let me ask: if you were to go to sleep tonight and wake up in a world where your company’s vision was fully realized, what would that world look like?

Saman Farid: The most immediate thing would be that every factory in America—and eventually the world—would have access to instant, on-demand, unlimited robots.

To provide some context, the average factory in America today has a 200% annual employee turnover. This means a factory employing 500 people needs to hire 1,000 people every year just to maintain those 500 positions. It’s an almost impossible task. Employees often work for a few weeks, find the job too painful and difficult, and leave. This constant churn leaves factories underutilized.

Most factories in America operate less than eight hours a day, which translates to about 30% utilization. Equipment like forklifts and air conditioners often sit idle, collecting dust 70% of the time. As a result, products are more expensive, quality suffers, and demand decreases—a vicious cycle leading to even less utilization.

When factories are equipped with robots, they become far more productive. They can provide the same products at lower costs, which is counter-inflationary and creates benefits for everyone.

Ultimately, our vision is a world of abundance—a world where shortages of essential products are a thing of the past. Abundance comes from higher efficiency and capacity in manufacturing, and if we can achieve that, we can solve many global challenges related to scarcity.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Now let’s take a moment to reflect on the past. If I were to put you in a time machine and take you back to the moment you decided to become a founder—right before you started Gold Line—what advice would you give your younger self, based on everything you know now?

Saman Farid: That’s a great question. The main advice I’d give is to focus intensely on the people you bring into the business. Every new hire has a massive impact on company culture. I love the phrase, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

What this means to me is that you can have the best strategy in the world, but without a cohesive and united team to execute it, you’re likely to fail. Conversely, even with the wrong strategy, a strong and aligned team can iterate and adapt their way to the right one.

A common mistake entrepreneurs make is overvaluing their initial idea. The truth is, 95% of the time, you’re wrong. You have to go into the business assuming your initial idea will evolve. Building mechanisms to enable continuous improvement and iteration is critical.

The same principle applies to investing. As a VC, I made the mistake of writing thesis papers on what the world needs, then searching for startups that aligned with those ideas. While there’s value in the thought process, the reality is that 95% of the time, I was wrong. It’s more important to fund teams that can iterate and innovate rather than betting on a specific idea or its initial implementation.

Alejandro Cremades: I love it. For those listening who’d like to reach out or connect with you, what’s the best way for them to do so?

Saman Farid: You can find me on Twitter at @SamanFarid, email me at *@fo****.co, or visit our company’s website at formic.co. I’m also on LinkedIn and other platforms.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Saman, thank you so much for being on The Dealmaker Show. It’s been an absolute honor to have you with us today.

Saman Farid: Alejandro, thank you so much for having me. I love what you’re doing with this incredible podcast, and I’d be happy to hear from your listeners.

*****

If you like the show, make sure that you hit that subscribe button. If you can leave a review as well, that would be fantastic. And if you got any value either from this episode or from the show itself, share it with a friend. Perhaps they will also appreciate it. Also, remember, if you need any help, whether it is with your fundraising efforts or with selling your business, you can reach me at al*******@pa**************.com“>al*******@pa**************.com

 

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