Open The Pod Bay Doors

Federico Collarte is the co-founder and CEO of Baraja, a rapidly growing startup creating LiDAR technology for self-driving cars. Baraja recently closed a $40m Series B, is scaling globally, and is quickly approaching a headcount of 200. Prior to co-founding Baraja, Federico worked in product development and systems engineering, with experience spanning the industrialisation of high volume telecommunication devices at Finisar, to the end-to-end systems engineering of an implantable hearing solution at Cochlear.In this chat with Phaedon, Federico discusses:The ins and outs of Baraja's most recent raiseAdvice for founders who are fundraisingBalancing the urgency of hiring with finding the right personLessons from building out overseas teamsCreating a culture that attracts problem solversManaging the co-founder relationship...and more!Quickfire Recommendations:Book: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne & The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzPodcast: Lex Fridman Podcast & The Joe Rogan Exp