Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Saman Farid, CEO & Founder of Formic, a robotics platform that has raised over $60 Million in funding.

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

• On-demand robot workforce: Formic provides factories with robots that can work on an hourly basis, aiming to solve labor shortages by making robotic solutions more accessible.
• COVID and labor shortages: Saman founded Formic during the pandemic, driven by supply chain disruptions and the unfilled jobs crisis in manufacturing, which showed a need for better automation solutions.
• From VC to founder: Saman transitioned back to being a founder because he believed in the massive potential of robotics. He saw a $10 billion opportunity in automating manufacturing tasks and felt compelled to take the leap.
• Robustness over cutting-edge tech: Formic focuses on reliability, prioritizing proven, dependable robotics technology that can run two shifts daily without downtime, over pursuing the latest but less mature advancements.
• Unique business model - "Pay for Productivity": Formic guarantees performance and productivity, only charging clients for the output they get, which has been a game-changer in driving faster adoption of robotics.
• Scaling with $250M in financing: Formic uses a sophisticated capital stack to finance deployments, which allows them to offer a "try before you buy" model, making robotics more affordable and less risky for manufacturers.

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