Saman Farid

Operator-founder who built a full‑stack Robots‑as‑a‑Service company: Saman founded Formic to remove financial, operational, and technical barriers to factory automation by combining equipment, financing, field service, and software (Formic Core / FPI). His approach emphasizes turnkey deployments, uptime guarantees, and production intelligence to make automation accessible to SMB and mid‑market manufacturers. formic+3

Experienced investor and corporate‑venture leader focused on AI applied to the physical world: Before returning to founding, Saman ran Baidu Ventures' US investment fund and founded Comet Labs, giving him a long track record of investing in and advising AI/robotics companies across manufacturing, logistics, and other physical industries. edu+2

Public speaker and advocate for revitalizing U.S. manufacturing: He frequently speaks and writes about the labor shortage, factory utilization, and the role of automation in rebuilding domestic manufacturing capacity — positioning Formic as a practical route to increase throughput and safety in production facilities. blackhornvc+2

Engineering background with international experience and dual-MBA training: Trained as a mechanical/control-systems engineer (The Cooper Union) and an MBA graduate of the Tsinghua–MIT joint program, Saman combines hands-on engineering fluency with cross-border business and investment experience, including many years working between China and the U.S. saman+3