What we talked about
Jonathan Collazo is an inventor, relentless builder, and the mission-driven founder and CEO of Ostrich Air and FireBot Labs:two pioneering deep-tech companies redefining the role of autonomous robotics in public safety, defense, and critical infrastructure. In this episode of the PreVetted Podcast, host Federico Ramallo dives deep into Jonathan’s fascinating and unorthodox path:from a teenage computer repair business in Florida to building battle-tested robots in Silicon Valley.
Show notes
Jonathan Collazo picked up a drone and described the experience as fireworks going off in his head. He had no engineering degree, no aerospace background, no pedigree, just an obsession with figuring out how things worked, a teenager’s history of turning any interest into a business, and a team of PhDs who let him ask the questions that formal training had taught them to stop asking. That combination got him onto Discovery Channel’s BattleBots. It is also building autonomous drones that can detect and suppress fires while fire departments focus elsewhere.
What we covered
- Ostrich Air began as an R&D lab that builds custom robotics for any client problem, ground robots, water robots, underwater systems, autonomous vehicles, and more, with the philosophy that if you can describe the problem, Ostrich Air can prototype a hardware-software solution for it.
- FireBot Labs was spun out as a separate company specifically so that investor involvement would not constrain Ostrich Air’s broader R&D work. The FireBot system is now launching: a fully autonomous drone that a user activates by clicking a location on a map, which then flies to the site, provides live video and situational data, returns to base, and recharges autonomously, no pilot required.
- The business model for FireBot Labs works by selling the same autonomous drone technology to commercial clients who can afford market rates, then using that revenue to supply the same equipment to fire departments at costs low enough that budget constraints are not a barrier, Jonathan’s stated goal is to get protective systems into neighborhoods regardless of what a fire department can pay.
- Ostrich Air competed on BattleBots with no pedigree, won a slot among 50 global teams, built their robot from scratch in two months, and went 2-1 on the show with a spinning AR-500 steel weapon that reached 250 miles per hour tip speed at 50% power. The robot, named Double Tap, would have valued at approximately $200,000 if labor and Silicon Valley overhead were counted.
- Jonathan’s hiring approach explicitly ignores resumes and focuses on three questions that he does not share publicly. His rule: if you do not pass those three questions, it does not matter if you were head of Lockheed Martin. What he looks for is people who show rather than tell, and whose honesty about mistakes, including their own failures, makes the whole team learn faster.
- His lab runs on a principle of radical transparency: all meetings are open to the entire team. Jonathan intentionally admitted to making mistakes in front of the team, including blowing things up himself, so that staff feel safe being honest when they break something, because a hidden mistake costs everyone more than a disclosed one ever would.
About Jonathan
Jonathan Collazo is the founder and CEO of Ostrich Air, a robotics R&D lab in Silicon Valley, and FireBot Labs, an autonomous drone company focused on fire detection and suppression. Self-educated, he built his knowledge base through hands-on work with drone delivery companies, drone security firms, and eventually his own lab staffed with engineers from Stanford and other top aerospace programs.
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/robotics-think-tank
- Website: https://firebotlabs.com
Episode 52 of the PreVetted Podcast.
Full transcript
Federico Ramallo (00:00) Welcome back to the Prevetted podcast where we spotlight extraordinary people and remarkable talent reshaping our world. Our guest today is Jonathan Colazo. He’s an inventor and relentless problem solver who has built not one but two deep tech companies at the intersection of robotics, autonomy and real world impact. He’s a founder and CEO of Ostrik Air and Firebot Labs.
Two organizations pioneering robotics, hardware and autonomous systems for defense, public safety and critical infrastructure. Jonathan’s story is far from typical. There’s no I.B. degree, no venture capital pay degree. What he does is he brings an obsession with solving problems that matter, a passion that started with drones and evolved into building battlefield-tested, mission-driven technology. From underfeeding battle robots to advanced autonomous systems,
shaping the future of public safety. Jonathan and his team are providing an innovative solution that is guided by mission and not money. So it’s going to be an interesting journey. We’re going to talk about the origins of ostrich, air and firebot labs and what it takes to break the mold while building the future. So welcome, Jonathan. How are you doing today?
Jonathan Collazo (01:19) I’m doing great, man. Thank you for the invite. Happy to be here.
Federico Ramallo (01:25) Great, great, I’m happy that you’re here. ⁓ I find ⁓ your atypical profile very interesting. ⁓ I’m also, you know, haven’t finished college, but eventually ended up finding ⁓ leading engineering teams and doing software development, working on different.
corporations and startups so yeah I mean you can make it with you know with no Ivy League degree.
Jonathan Collazo (01:57) Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. just have to have a passion for it and work an insane amount of hours, as you know, and you can make anything happen.
Federico Ramallo (02:05) hahaha
Yes, yes. So ⁓ what was your first prototype? And you know, that made you realize robotics, you know, it’s your thing.
Jonathan Collazo (02:16) first.
So actually, I’ll tell you a little bit of, so I’m from Florida originally. I’m not from California. ⁓ I grew up over there in Florida. I had a computer company when I was a teenager and kind of, I mean, when I say computer company, I mean, like I started fixing my friends’ computers, family’s computers, then eventually it became a business where I was doing pretty well for myself. ⁓ Because of that.
Federico Ramallo (02:47) nice.
Jonathan Collazo (02:48) I ended up not paying too much attention to high school, which is a bad thing. I don’t suggest that to anybody. ⁓ But it grew my company to a point where I was doing really well. That company moved on to having an architectural firm, which then I stepped out of and moved to California. In California, ⁓ I basically was just looking to see what I was going to go do. was honestly…
I started playing video games. started playing Call of Duty and even started my own clan and started having a lot of fun. And then I realized video games wasn’t my thing, even though we’re competing already for money. it’s almost everything I end up touching I get obsessed with. And then I turn it into a money-making thing, you know? I just can’t help it. So, but it wasn’t my thing. So I literally disconnected my Xbox, never played again. And picked up a drone.
Federico Ramallo (03:33) Yeah
Jonathan Collazo (03:45) When I picked up a drone, I’m telling you, it was like fireworks. My head went crazy. I was like, okay, this is some insane technology. And I felt like I was at the right place at the right time with the right tech, except I knew nothing about drones. So, I mean, of course, I’m self-educated. street smart, I’m gonna learn this stuff.
Federico Ramallo (04:03) Hahaha
Jonathan Collazo (04:12) started getting parts, started buying parts, started hanging out with groups. You you started looking for groups online that ⁓ kind of match what you’re trying to learn. And I just went nuts. Like, I mean, I’m telling you, dude, there was so many boxes showing up at the house and there was a lot of cursing going out of my office trying to figure out how this stuff worked and blowing up stuff. And I mean, it was pretty funny, but I was obsessed with learning.
you know, how the technology worked so that I can get into the industry. So my goal was, my goal wasn’t to start a company. My goal was this is amazing technology and I have to be a part of it somehow. So I wanted to learn enough so I can get a job at one of these engineering companies that worked on drones. And so my obsession came from that. And I did, I got into a drone delivery company. So it worked out for me.
started ⁓ helping out at this drone delivery company and learning more, of course. And then eventually I knew enough where I was doing a lot of consulting. So I started consulting for a lot of the other drone companies, just trying to figure out again, I’m just trying to get smarter so that I can land in the right company that I believe would blow up and make it happen, right? ⁓ So that was the goal. You’re just trying to get smart enough to be around the smart people.
That’s kind of what it is. But then I realized that there was a lot of time that was going to go by before a lot of these drone companies really made it. The first one was a drone delivery company. And I realized that regulations and ⁓ just too many things that would not allow for a drone delivery company to make it big enough, fast enough that the way that I think I need to be somewhere that
grows fast, makes a lot of money and grows big. ⁓ And so then I went to ⁓ drone security. So drone security companies was pretty cool because they own their own properties. So I can let go of a drone in a place and the regulations are not the same. It’s like I own the property, I can have a drone in that property and I can secure it. So.
Federico Ramallo (06:35) so you don’t have
any regulation constraints there
Jonathan Collazo (06:38) Yeah, it’s a lot less. There’s regulation, but I mean, it’s like nothing, you know? Imagine trying to deliver a pizza to your house with a drone versus I am securing my house or my building or my construction site, you know? Big difference, right? So that’s kind of what excited me. I was like, okay, I can be a part of this until some of these other verticals grow. And…
Federico Ramallo (06:53) Right.
Jonathan Collazo (07:05) Started doing drone security, that went pretty well. The company itself that I was at didn’t do so great. And that’s when I decided, know, you know what? I think I’m gonna start my own thing now. Like I know enough, I understand the market. know enough people, enough people know me to understand the technology. So maybe I start my own thing. And that’s where Ostriger kind of was born. ⁓ Ostriges, as you know, can’t fly.
which was a hilarious twist. And for me, was more of like, we’re making the impossible possible. So if we can make an ostrich fly, dude, we’re gonna do awesome. So that’s where that comes from. If you look at the logo for Ostrich Air, you’ll see that he has a cracked helmet from trying. So yeah.
Federico Ramallo (07:52) Alright!
Jonathan Collazo (07:54) But at the end, so what Ostriger really is, it became an R &D lab. So what that means is if you came in here and you said, I this problem, I need a vehicle that can handle this job for this long. basically, you give me a problem, and we would then build a drone at first that can handle that.
But then we started doing, you know, ground robots and water robots, underwater, you know, space, autonomous vehicle stuff, and pretty much man and unmanned, just anything. So it became what Mr. Jared now became an R &D lab for any problem that had to do with robotics. ⁓ And then it expanded even from that. So we’re even doing stuff that has no moving parts, but, you know, software, hardware.
and we’re doing the prototype. So, zero to one. So if you thought about it, we can make it happen and it’s hardware, software, and nowadays, know, AI and everything else in between, you know? So it’s all in-house. We take care of it all. And that’s how Firebot Labs was born. Because now I’m doing something that I want to do. I’m excited. We have a badass team, you know, a lot of scientists and…
engineers from high level schools and we’re just making cool stuff happen. But when you work in so many different areas, you end up kind of coming up with ideas on how to help. Like, how can we help? Like, I mean, we have all this knowledge, how can we help? And of course, you’re noticing all the fires here in California, you know, and I’m like, dude, all this knowledge we have, we got to be able to do something, right? So.
we started making stuff like we before we even talked to anyone, we just started making stuff. So we started building drones that can detect fires. We started building drones that land inside fires and take fires out. I mean, we’re backwards. Instead of trying to look for money, we were just building and testing out ways on if we could solve the problem or not. ⁓ Once we realized we could solve the problem, then we were like, okay.
This is a good idea. Now let’s see if we can get some funding so that we can create it. So it was going to be under Austria-Jer. But then we realized that if I got investors involved into Firebot Labs or into this product, right, that all the R &D stuff that we do in Austria-Jer would have to stop. So that’s when we decided, okay, we’re starting a second company. So that’s where Firebot Labs is.
Federico Ramallo (10:41) Right, ⁓
Jonathan Collazo (10:43) Yeah, go ahead.
Federico Ramallo (10:43) out of necessity you created a new company.
Jonathan Collazo (10:47) Exactly, because now I can have a company that ⁓ basically it’s almost impossible for it to die because it’s being backed by Ostriger. So it’s being backed by a badass team that can handle basically any problems that gets thrown at it. It’s investable. So now I could have people, friends, family, companies that know us invest into it. And it lives inside of our own place until it grows big enough to kind of step out. ⁓
And we did. So we built it out, built the product. It’s ⁓ going live now. ⁓ And it’s a fully autonomous drone system that’s able to do some incredible stuff with AI. ⁓ And there we go. mean, everybody told me basically it was a bad idea, you know, helping the fire department wasn’t going to make me any money, but I didn’t care. ⁓ I wanted to make something that could help people. And I knew that we could figure out a way of making money, you know, with it.
Federico Ramallo (11:39) you
Jonathan Collazo (11:46) But the main purpose of FireBot Labs is how do we save lives? So how do we make something that outlives us? So making really cool tech that later on, who cares who made it, but you feel like, I was a part of that. That was awesome. So that’s what FireBot Labs is. It’s a system that’s meant to outlive us and technology that will save lives forever.
Federico Ramallo (12:04) Right, right.
Jonathan Collazo (12:15) And the money was not the reason why it was built. It was built specifically to save lives, you know?
Federico Ramallo (12:22) Right,
right. Well, the money becomes a way to ⁓ perpetuate the mission, right? And to have more resources to build more cool stuff, right? I mean, but it becomes a secondary ⁓ necessity, right?
Jonathan Collazo (12:31) Mm-hmm.
Exactly,
Yeah, so we did have to figure it out. mean, the fire department was not going to pay us the amount of money that we’re spending on making this system. So we just found alternative companies that would be able to benefit from the exact same technology. And it turned out there was a lot. So that is basically what pays fireball labs. So at the end of the day, honestly, my dream, which I’m
Federico Ramallo (13:04) nice.
Jonathan Collazo (13:11) It’s not even a dream at this point because I know I can make it happen now. We will be able to supply fire departments with equipment. Even if they tell us and we look at their budgets and they’re like, dude, I can only afford a dollar. I could put a system that protects that neighborhood in that area. And because of everything else, I can take care of the fire department at super incredible low cost that they don’t even have to worry about it.
Federico Ramallo (13:39) wow!
Jonathan Collazo (13:40) Yeah,
yeah, it’s pretty cool, man. I’m super proud of this one.
Federico Ramallo (13:46) That’s amazing! So
the drum flies by itself and takes care of the fires
Jonathan Collazo (13:54) Yeah, so that’s the end goal. The end goal is being able ⁓ to take care of the fires. We know how to do it. Not right now, what we’re launching is the full autonomy. So that means instead of having to sit there and train somebody and teach them how to fly a drone, all these things that ⁓ basically become a liability, all you have to do, and eventually you’re going to have to do that, is literally click on the map.
Like where’s the issue or type in the address. That’s it. That’s all you do. The drone automatically arrives on location, starts doing its thing, gives you live video, gives you live details of what’s going on in that area. And when you’re done looking at it, it’ll go home and recharge and get ready for you to click on the next place. So it’s, it’s no, you don’t have to think about it. It’s just, it’s just one information.
We make it so that you can get that information without you having to think about how you got it, basically.
Federico Ramallo (14:55) Right.
So you only give them the, you give the location and then the drone takes care of getting there somehow and take care of the fire. Amazing. And do you go back and forth bringing water in?
Jonathan Collazo (15:06) Exactly, yeah. yeah, it’s pretty sick, yeah.
So eventually it will be something that was scaled to that right now because the drones are small. It’s more about the information at the beginning. So being able to tell you, hey, this is where the fire is at, this is where it could be spreading, this is what you should do, know, like that kind of stuff. As the company grows, it’ll get to that point of, like I mentioned before, like we tested landing inside of a fire and taking fires out.
It just takes a lot of drums and a lot of money to go into that exact point. But it’s fun as heck, man. It’s so much fun to be able to see these things in action.
Federico Ramallo (15:55) Right, wow that’s amazing, yeah I mean can see how you would destroy one drone after another one just trying to get it in, right?
Jonathan Collazo (16:05) I was like, how does this survive, you know, ⁓ 2000 degrees, you landed and can you fly out? Because there’s one thing to land, but you need to be able to fly out until you landed in that heat. Exactly. So that’s what makes it fun.
Federico Ramallo (16:17) Right. Right.
Yeah, yeah. I mean,
it kind of reminds me when I was a kid that I would open up toys to see how it works, right? And then I couldn’t put them together, right? I was like, well, now I know how it works, you know?
Jonathan Collazo (16:31) Uh-huh.
That’s me.
That’s you’re explaining my life. The guys here, my CTO, everybody like will come around my desk and if they handed me something that was expensive, you’ll see them take it away because they know it will be in pieces because I’m going to figure out how it works. And I almost do it. Yeah, I almost do it unconsciously. So I always have some kind of fidget thing in my hands because I’m that’s
Federico Ramallo (17:08) Right.
Jonathan Collazo (17:09) That’s how my brain works. You put something in front of me, I’m going to it apart without knowing, you know? And then I will be examining it if it’s something new. If it’s not, then it just became a part.
Federico Ramallo (17:24) yeah, we want to see the soul, we want to see how it actually works, we want to see the insides
Jonathan Collazo (17:30) Exactly, right? How do you know how things work? mean, like, it’s one thing when you go and go to school, you know, you go to university, they teach you the theory, and you get to read all these things on how, you know, how this stuff supposed to work. Like my CTO here, he’s a Stanford Aerospace ⁓ and Mechanical Engineer with a business degree. Geez. I mean, how many titles can you have, right? So when we started working together,
It was one of those things where he’s like, dude, theory or science says that this is not possible. I’m like, well, my crazy brain says that it’s possible. So we should try it and see what’s going to happen. And to be honest, what would happen is sometimes I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But every single time we both learned something. And then by meeting amazing people, like I’ve met some extraordinary, like
people that inventors and scientists and I kept asking every single one and the same question I’m like when you wrote a book when you wrote a white paper when you wrote, know about this discovery that you made was that really like really a hundred percent everything you learned and Every single one of them said no Every single one of them said no that was kind of the trash
It was the stuff that basically gets you to, you know, write a book for people to understand that, know, what you’re doing and that they can learn enough on it. But the real cool stuff happens if you try. That’s where you really learn. So I’m excited. I was like, okay, that makes sense. Cause I’ve learned so much stuff by just blowing things up, you know, and now listening to like, you know, a scientist with a degree who’s like changed history, you know, with his discoveries telling you.
Federico Ramallo (19:14) Yeah.
Jonathan Collazo (19:22) Yeah dude, what I wrote in that book is cool to most people, but what was really cool is the things that I learned when I was blowing stuff up, learning how to do that.
Federico Ramallo (19:33) Right,
right. Yeah, I I can understand that we kind of need a little bit of both because we need the papers to kind of build this scientific knowledge that is proven, that is, you know, I can understand that. But yeah, that’s always going to be a lag behind, you know, the cool innovation, right? Because, right, it’s old. Yeah, it’s old. Yeah.
Jonathan Collazo (19:40) Mm-hmm.
Yes.
It’s old. Yeah, it’s old technology. Yeah.
If it’s in a book, it’s old. so that’s, mean, but that’s where we, you need the people. Like you said, like I am surrounded by badass engineers with PhDs, you know, tons of practical knowledge, right? And I’m the only crazy one in here that doesn’t, you know, I’m the one that’s, that’s just saying, don’t know.
Federico Ramallo (20:02) Hahaha
Jonathan Collazo (20:23) Maybe we should do this or do that. And again, at the end of the day, that’s why it works, because we get to push innovation. We get to ask those hard questions. Is that really that way? Can you push it a little bit harder? What can it really do?
Federico Ramallo (20:27) Right.
Right, right. I mean, this reminds me of a story, know, a group of people are driving a car and then the car stops driving, right? And then the, you know, mechanical engineers, you know, things can fix a car, but not really, you know, ⁓ a mechanical engineer will be able to build you a new carburetor, a new injection system, whatever it is, right?
but usually won’t be able to fix the car, right? But then, you know, you have the, you know, the mechanic that has a lot of practical knowledge, right? You will do bang, bang here, bang, bang there. It shouldn’t work, but it works, you know. It ain’t stupid if it works, right? And, yeah. And maybe, right, maybe doesn’t know.
Jonathan Collazo (21:27) Exactly. Now it’s true. Vast knowledge of the product, right?
Federico Ramallo (21:39) the Bernoulli theory or whatever, but can make it work, right? So there is a lot of value in the practical knowledge, right? Yeah.
Jonathan Collazo (21:51) You need both. You definitely
need both. I wish I had the ability and the time to have learned more, you know, but now I get taught by the guys who went to school, right? So they teach me what they learn. I teach them what I learned, you know? Like I bring them this and this happened. They tell me the scientific reason why that happened.
Federico Ramallo (22:02) Right.
right, right and it’s good information because you need it at that time to guide your test to a new direction,
Jonathan Collazo (22:28) Exactly. So you know how far to go, but you also know what to test. And if they’re confused, you know, definitely to push. We’re about to learn something today.
Federico Ramallo (22:37) yeah yeah yeah
yeah I can see how that happens and the other thing is you’re coming with a different perspective of the world so that means that you don’t come in with a preconception ⁓ of everything you already learned right ⁓ so then you can pick and choose and be innovative in ways that nobody else would
Jonathan Collazo (22:55) Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Exactly, Big companies move slow, you know. I learned a lot of big companies, they move really slow because they’ll spend too much time trying to figure out on paper and on math how they should move ahead. I say they have a meeting about a meeting about a meeting, right? The difference between our lab is in 10 days, there will be a flying thing. It’s like, wait, will it crash? There’s a 99 % chance it will.
Federico Ramallo (23:23) Right.
Hahaha!
Jonathan Collazo (23:35) But then the second one that happens, you know, 10 days after that, which is still in a fraction of the time that they would have spent talking about it. We’ve now have a flying prototype that’s doing, you know, 70 % of what we said it was going to do. And then six months, that thing is a monster after, you know, a couple of reiterations. So big difference, you know, like when you’re able to just do instead of just talk about it. Like when the guys start talking about it, I mean, when
Federico Ramallo (23:56) Wow!
Jonathan Collazo (24:03) The conversations are insane. When these guys get on the whiteboard, we start chatting about what the new project is, how we have to solve it. It is the funnest thing to watch. I mean, there’s some insane math being thrown at the wall, you know? ⁓ And then we go, okay, let’s stop talking about it. Let’s go to the shop and start grabbing stuff and put it to the test. But that happens within like a day or two. Like that’s not a, that’s not a, okay, let’s.
Federico Ramallo (24:15) you
Jonathan Collazo (24:33) You know, let’s sit here for weeks drawing it on CAD. No, we’ll draw it on CAD if the theory works.
Federico Ramallo (24:37) Yeah
Right, right. Yeah,
but you can move fast and see if it works or doesn’t. And the excitement, know, is it going to work? Yeah.
Jonathan Collazo (24:48) Exactly, yeah.
Gosh Yes, yeah It’s
a blast man. I’m telling you. It’s no fetus I’ve never felt like this in any company I’ve ever had like it’s Exciting to come to work, you know, I mean I went home yesterday in my head I was like man, I feel like a slacker. I’m going home early, you know, it’s like 5 p.m. And then I’m I still realize wait I’ve been here since 6 in the morning like, you know like
Having a 12 hour day around here feels like you were a slacker. And it wasn’t because you were working, it’s because you were having fun. So you’re building stuff, you’re working on things that were exciting. And it’s ⁓ a trip, dude. When you find something you really truly love to do, it’s such a trip. It’s the best feeling ever.
Federico Ramallo (25:22) Right.
Right,
right. Yeah, and and you know, the tiredness doesn’t wait, right? There are two components, right? So you have immediate gratification of what you’re doing, but also when you find what you’re doing has purpose, meaningful for you, then that enhances the gratification, right?
Jonathan Collazo (25:53) Mm-hmm.
Federico Ramallo (26:11) And if you keep piling up on that, then ⁓ man, that’s a dream. ⁓
Jonathan Collazo (26:17) It is man, so I can tell you man, I am one happy human being. I love what I do. I’m surrounded by bad ass people who know, who are passionate for the same reasons. We don’t concentrate on what a resume says, more about what they’ve built, what you’ve done and how much you like doing what you do. So there’s a few questions I won’t say on air here. ⁓
Federico Ramallo (26:22) Hahaha!
Jonathan Collazo (26:44) that I ask anybody that wants to work for us and our list is insane of people that want to work for us. ⁓ And I ask a couple of questions. If you don’t pass those three questions, doesn’t matter if you were like the head of Lockheed Martin, you’re not working with us.
Federico Ramallo (27:00) Right. Right.
That’s the thing when you build a high-performing team, right? The next hire is critical, and the next one is critical, because that could make or break your team dynamic, right?
Jonathan Collazo (27:05) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Exactly, yeah. It’s about
showing me, not telling me.
Federico Ramallo (27:20) Right.
Yeah. I am self-learned as well. And eventually, I ended up doing things without having a name to it. And then eventually, somebody talks about that. And they realize, oh, what I’ve been doing, it’s called whatever. Now I can put a label to it. Right. It’s like, oh, that makes sense. Right. So it happened many times that.
Jonathan Collazo (27:30) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (27:47) I came to a conclusion that it’s a framework or it’s a, you know, somebody put a name to it or somebody already invented it, quote unquote, yeah, right. And it’s amazing because that means, when you’re trying things out, you don’t know, right? Am I in the right direction? Am I in the wrong direction? So you get this validation that, you it’s nice, yeah.
Jonathan Collazo (27:57) Yeah man, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I used to look up every time I have like a cool idea I would try to look up okay is it invented is it not invented and when you do work in a lot of like high-level stuff like this you you still want to do side stuff like you know side projects and just things that make no sense sometimes it’s just your own project your own thing and
⁓ Lately what I’ve had to do is I’m not gonna look to see if it exists I’m gonna build it and then I’ll look to see if it exists Because my idea behind that was I want to see if it exists how they built it and if I did the same thing or if they had a different idea Isn’t that cool? So you end up just because it was for fun anyway, so it wasn’t like a money-making thing. It was just like okay this idea
Federico Ramallo (28:47) Yeah
Right.
Jonathan Collazo (29:08) I’m gonna build it. You know, my side time, which I don’t have no side time, dude. I work like a million hours a day, but still, I still find time to just take a little break and build something for myself. And yeah, it’s fun to be able to build it and then go look on the internet and be like, yeah, it does exist. Okay, there’s a thousand people that made something like this. ⁓
Federico Ramallo (29:22) Right.
hahahaha
Jonathan Collazo (29:36) But it’s cool then kind of comparing what you built versus what they built and seeing if you were did a better version or a worse version or, you know, it’s just fun. It’s an interesting way to learn, you know.
Federico Ramallo (29:48) Right.
but if you look at it before you build it now your experiment is tainted because now you know what is being built
Jonathan Collazo (29:59) you might not even try to build it at that point. You might be
like discouraged to even try it, right? So.
Federico Ramallo (30:06) Right, right. This way you are, because the thing is, if you compare yourself with others, then there’s always somebody that’s going to make it a little bit better, a little bit, a little bit more experienced, whatever, right? So it’s going to be demoralizing, right? But if you do it for yourself and then you compare, it’s like, well, it’s interesting. I came to this conclusion. These people came to this other conclusion for whatever reason, right? Yeah, yeah. I remember
Jonathan Collazo (30:21) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (30:35) ⁓ Neil deGray’s Tyson was talking about if you… Yeah, he’s awesome. He was saying that, you know, if you… ⁓ If the civilization gets destroyed, right, or we serve a blank with science, right, other people with other names are going to come up eventually with the same conclusions as we have today, right? ⁓ Whereas, you know, if you take ⁓ some pseudoscience or whatever,
Jonathan Collazo (30:38) ⁓ he’s awesome.
Federico Ramallo (31:04) they’re never going to come up with those conclusions because they don’t have the scientific method to prove it, right?
Jonathan Collazo (31:12) Mm-hmm.
No, it’s interesting, man. I never think that I, ⁓ like when I come up with anything or when the team comes up with anything, you always assume that there’s thousands of people around the world that came up with this same idea. And the reason you think that way is because if you came up with it is because there’s circumstances around that gave you the idea. So that means there’s a lot of people out there. Now, who’s going to build it?
Federico Ramallo (31:37) bright.
Jonathan Collazo (31:40) who has the capacity to build it and who can build it quicker. So that’s kind of where you decide, okay, am I gonna go after this? There is a lot of people releasing me. So, then that’s how you build, So it’s, yeah, you don’t assume it. I mean, I’m surrounded by people. I feel like I’m the dumb guy in the room. Like I’m surrounded by such smart people, you know?
It’s super cool, man. It’s super cool. It’s just like, hey, what do you think of this? What do you think of that? And it’s awesome that they’re, you know, letting me guide them into, you know, creating this business and growing it and, you know, trust me to, to take them to that next stage, which is of course, is, you know, terrifying. It’s thinking about how many people’s hands you have, you know, that, that you have to take care of and make sure that, you know, the company grows.
⁓ But then at the end of the day, you realize we’re all the same and we’re just all like passionate about doing this and you know, we’ll make it happen because everybody’s wanting to make it happen, you know.
Federico Ramallo (32:49) Right, right. Yeah, they trust
their lives in you and the company, right? So…
Jonathan Collazo (32:56) Yeah, that’s the honor. That’s
the honor, man. That’s like, you know, I thank them every single day. And I’m here, they’re just actually out in the shop right now. They heard me that I was talking, but we have an open door policy here. So all my meetings with everyone, they get to hear them. So they know that, you know, what I’m talking to them and what I’m telling them that, and what I’m telling them, board is bond. So we, you know, trust.
Federico Ramallo (33:07) Ha ha.
Jonathan Collazo (33:25) ⁓ If we fail, you all heard it from the beginning basically. But it allows everybody to trust and go, okay, yeah, I see what he’s doing or what he’s doing next or why he’s doing what he’s doing next, you know? So it’s really helpful. I don’t have to hide anything because there is nothing to hide. We’re trying to grow and we’re making cool stuff. That’s us.
Federico Ramallo (33:30) Right. Right.
Right, Wow, that’s amazing, yeah.
Jonathan Collazo (33:56) Thank you, man. It’s
been a journey, that’s for sure.
Federico Ramallo (34:01) Yes, but I was thinking about this, you know, the experiences, experiences, all the errors that we made before that allow us not to make them now, right?
Jonathan Collazo (34:13) Exactly. Yeah. If
you don’t make mistakes, mean, I’m telling you mistakes is what got us here. All right. It’s trying things out. So, you know, one of the interns earlier today, we’re talking to him and I’m telling him, you know what, like you’ll never get in trouble here if you’re honest. So if you tell me I broke this, but you explain how you broke it and why, then I’m happy because that means you learned something. Right.
Federico Ramallo (34:20) Yes.
Jonathan Collazo (34:42) you’re not gonna do it again. Now the bad thing is if you lie to us and now we have other guys trying to fix something that’s the wrong thing because you didn’t say what really happened, you know? So by being honest, we all move forward. We all move faster and we all get smarter. So if you break it, bro, like admit it, I’ll be the first one they know it. I’m like, man, I screwed this up, bro.
Federico Ramallo (35:07) hahahaha
Jonathan Collazo (35:09) And of course, mean, yeah, I mean, it’s a little embarrassing. know, it’s like, damn, the CEO blew that thing up. Like, you know, I’m human, bro. It happens. You know, I have a lot of knowledge, but I’m still human. And I want you guys to know that, you know, I could hide it. Of course I’m the CEO, but you know, like, no, man, I don’t want to hide it. I want them to know and learn from it so that they don’t make the mistake that I made, you know? And…
Federico Ramallo (35:21) Right.
Right.
Jonathan Collazo (35:38) Same thing, like if you lie to me and you’re telling me, know, I’m like, I am a PhD of this, you know, and you tell me something, I want to be able to trust that what you just said is 100 % true. So that’s why the team is super important, you know, to have a team that you can really trust and, you know, that will, like everything that you’re learning from them, you’re learning because they really did try it or they failed at it or.
They did it and it worked, right? So it’s critical. The success has been the team. I’ve been very, very fortunate to have built an amazing team.
Federico Ramallo (36:19) That’s amazing. there is an issue with mistakes that is, you know, I made the mistake, then I’m a failure. And there is that, you know, especially for trainees, right, that they have to, you know, overcome and understanding that it’s not a failure. It’s part of their experience. Right. And once they’re honest, then once you can build trust, then you can move forward faster. Right.
Jonathan Collazo (36:49) Exactly,
Federico Ramallo (36:51) Yeah. One of the things that I’ve been doing is interviewing software engineers. And I have a few questions as well to test basically their integrity. For me, their integrity is more important than their skills. ⁓ And honesty is one of them. But yeah, so we had a case where
Jonathan Collazo (37:10) ⁓ yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Federico Ramallo (37:21) ⁓ one developer broke something in production and didn’t say anything and then we were trying to figure it out and it was a lie that got him fired, it was not the mistake
Jonathan Collazo (37:34) That’s what I’m
saying, right? Yeah. If you would have said, hey man, this happened. Everybody can live with that. Like everybody makes mistakes. How do we fix it? We can fix it. But now if you wait till it’s too late and now it causes all this drama and then now we can’t trust you, then how do we work with you, right? So.
Federico Ramallo (37:39) Right.
Right, trust is everything, yeah. And that’s I talk about integrity, that’s core, right? ⁓ Can I trust somebody in the worst, right? In the worst situation, right? Because everybody’s a friend when there’s abundance, right? ⁓ Everybody’s a friend for… Yes, yes.
Jonathan Collazo (37:56) Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yes. And even friends he didn’t know existed will appear when there’s an abundance.
Federico Ramallo (38:21) Drinking bad is the word is full of it, right? Yeah But when things get tough then who’s going to show up right who’s going to to be there for you, right?
Jonathan Collazo (38:25) Yeah.
Who’s your 3 a.m. buddy, right? Who can you call at 3 a.m.?
That’s what I say, right? Like, You could do amazing things if the people that are around you, could call at 3 a.m. and they will answer.
Federico Ramallo (38:37) Right.
Right, right. And in that process of going through something difficult, you build that brotherhood that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Yeah.
Jonathan Collazo (38:55) I’m telling you man, well,
I don’t know if you researched that we were on Discovery Channel on BattleBots. So that’s like robot fighting. ⁓ And okay, okay, yeah, so there you go. We just wanted to be able to show the world, you know, what kind of things we did, but without telling the world. It’s like, you know, tell me who you are without, you know, without telling me who you are. Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (39:06) Yeah, I was going to ask you about that,
Right.
Telling me who you are,
Jonathan Collazo (39:22) So BattleBots is one of those like shows that ⁓ they’ve been around for like 20 something years and everybody who’s made it to that show, ⁓ you have to have a pedigree. I mean, it’s like the Olympics for robotics. So they only pick 50 teams around the world to be able to join them and every single one of them has a pedigree. So it’s like, I’ve been doing this from high school and we built this and that and the other thing. We showed up.
⁓ with no pedigree. it was, I just, well, we basically showed stuff that we shouldn’t show to the, you know, to Discovery Channel, to ⁓ the show. ⁓ And basically, yeah, we know what we’re doing. ⁓ Would you let us in? Of course the expectations are no. You know, they’re not gonna let us in because you’ve never built a battle bot, right? But we showed enough where they said yes.
Federico Ramallo (39:54) Ha ha!
Jonathan Collazo (40:20) And that meant we had two months to build a robot from the ground up. Had to be designed, put together, and be on TV to embarrass us if it didn’t work. I mean, it’s being recorded on TV. I mean, to me, honestly, we won the moment they said, you’re in. It’s like, we just made it to, but it’s like saying, I made it to the Olympics. I don’t care if I lost.
Federico Ramallo (40:43) Right.
Jonathan Collazo (40:47) I made it to the Olympics, bro. You know, when you think about it that way, you’re like, that was awesome, dude. We made it to the Olympics. basic. Yeah, exactly. It’s still like, what did you do? know, made it to the Olympics. Uh, so we made it and the first, first hit of that robot goes and knocks out the other robot. So like we go KO.
Federico Ramallo (40:52) Yeah.
I was the last one, but I made it.
hahaha
Jonathan Collazo (41:17) on the first, you know, I mean, took two hits. We hit him twice. It really destroyed the robot in the first time. If you actually watch the video, you’re like, yeah, that thing was never moving again, but we hit it again, ⁓ which is fun because we named the robot Double Tap. So we hit you twice and you were gone. But I mean, we were more surprised that the math that we did.
that was educated math, because we’ve never been on the show or built something like that. It worked, right? So was educated math. know, these guys sitting around doing all this math and going, OK, this should work based on the physics and what we watched on TV. That’s it. That’s all the knowledge we had from watching it on TV. And the thing went, you know, 2-1-0 for the season. we’re, I mean, how amazing is that? That was unexpected. That was just like,
a cherry on top of the fact that we made it to the show.
Federico Ramallo (42:17) Right
Jonathan Collazo (42:20) Heck yeah, man. You know, like, and we lived together. So we actually rented an Airbnb in Vegas and our team. man, how many? I think it was like eight of us or more. It was probably more of us there in Vegas in the same Airbnb for like 12 days, if I’m correct. ⁓ Working day, night to get filmed and do this thing. There was no arguments. We just build. had fun and, you know, did our thing.
Federico Ramallo (42:43) you
Jonathan Collazo (42:50) and came back home. That showed me. I remember when I came home, I was like, what a badass team I have, To be able to take, mean, how many friends can you say you could stay in an Airbnb for that long, work day and night, and you’re not gonna have an argument, and you’re gonna have fun. That’s sick, right? Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (42:57) hahahaha
Right.
Yeah, I have a similar team and we go off-roading to different parts of… Yeah, it becomes a family. We spent four days just off-roading in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, and it was amazing, you know. And things broke down, know, my car broke down, and we fixed it, and we continued driving, and you know.
Jonathan Collazo (43:17) There you go. That’s a family.
Federico Ramallo (43:39) Yeah, yeah, somebody. ⁓
Jonathan Collazo (43:40) That’s the fun though,
that’s the fun. That’s what makes it worth it. If everything went perfect, this is the way I say it, if everything went perfect, life would be boring.
Federico Ramallo (43:51) Right, right. So ⁓ four years ago we spent, we did the same route and we got stuck five days because we got hit by a tornado. ⁓ So we had ⁓ trees, know, pieces of trees flying over us, right, ⁓ falling on us.
Jonathan Collazo (44:03) my god.
Federico Ramallo (44:12) So you could hear the cracks but you couldn’t see where we were coming from because the sound was bouncing everywhere. ⁓ And then the road was blocked because a big boulder fell off on the road. So basically we built a bridge with trees and rope that we had somehow ⁓ and then we had to build more rope because we ran out of it.
Jonathan Collazo (44:13) huh.
Federico Ramallo (44:41) So we took bags and we took them apart just to make rope, right? And then we had, I think we had like six cars that had to drive over the boulder, right? ⁓ I mean, it was so much fun, right? But yeah, and we didn’t wash for five days. So, you know, we didn’t realize how stinky our cars were, you know? ⁓
Jonathan Collazo (44:42) Yeah
Do that awesome.
you
Federico Ramallo (45:09) Because you’re
camping, you’re in middle of nowhere, right? So what you got to do, right? So yeah. But we have everything, you we have water, we have fridge in the car, and we have beer. So, you know, we’re cool, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the government agency sent a chopper and landed because we have this…
Jonathan Collazo (45:12) Yeah, of course. Yeah.
There you go. Thank you. ⁓
⁓
Federico Ramallo (45:36) little devices and so we send an SOS. So they sent us a chopper, right? And they showed up and they were like, are you okay? And we’re like, yes, we’re okay. Do you need any medical assistance? Well, the only guy that got injured, we fixed him, patched him up and they approved and it was okay. So… ⁓
We ⁓ had all the people accounted for. have one minor. But everybody was OK. And they were like, well, we can take you back on the chapter to civilization, but only the people, not the cars. And we look at each other. Do we want to do a fun ride on the helicopter? That sounds fun, but we don’t want to leave the cars alone. And if we do, we’re going to, you know.
However we can, we’re going to go back to the cars to continue our journey, right? you know. So they, we said no, right? But they ask everybody and everybody said no. So if only one guy said yes, we will all have to go, right? ⁓ So it was amazing. Yeah, yeah. And we…
Jonathan Collazo (46:37) Of course. Yeah.
That sounds epic.
Federico Ramallo (46:56) that’s what I was talking about the brotherhood, right? We survived, we had a friend that we sent a message at 3am saying we’re stuck and he showed up it was like a 5 hour drive for him, so he showed up and he rallied up people locally because the local government, I don’t know the name but you know the
Jonathan Collazo (47:05) you
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (47:21) The people that are helping you in those types of crisis, they were overwhelmed because that tornado hit all the surrounding area and the roads were blocked. So they had a, I mean, we’re not a priority for them, right? I mean.
Jonathan Collazo (47:35) Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You guys are okay.
You’re a bunch of guys. You got your Jeeves. You got food. Yeah. I get it. I get it.
Federico Ramallo (47:40) Yeah. Yeah.
We’re going to open the main roads instead of taking care of you guys, right? Wait. So this guy showed up on the other side, bought chain saws, two chain saws, rally up four or five guys, and then brought…
Jonathan Collazo (47:50) Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Federico Ramallo (48:03) bring them food and said, know, start opening because the trail was closed on the other side as well, right? So we eventually meet four days later. So it was, that’s my 3 a.m. buddy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jonathan Collazo (48:14) ⁓ man. But see that’s your 3AM buddy. That’s your 3AM guy, right? Yeah. I’m telling you man, you got
five of those 3AM buddies, you can freaking make the world rotate the other way.
Federico Ramallo (48:28) Hahaha
Yes, yes, amazing. So
I saw that the BattleBot was like a spinning disk, right? ⁓ So how fast were you accelerating the spinning disk?
Jonathan Collazo (48:40) huh.
Okay,
so that thing can hit 250 mile an hour tip speed. So, and that was at 50 % power, but that was how much they legally allowed us to spin it up. Now to give you an idea, to give you an idea, the metal of it is made out of AR 500. So that’s the same metal that you use when you go to the shooting range, the plates in the back. That’s what that metal is. So.
Federico Ramallo (48:53) Hahaha!
Jonathan Collazo (49:16) So it was bulletproof ⁓ steel that’s spinning at 250 mile an hour tip speed. ⁓ And it weighed around 60 pounds. So now think about a hammer, right? Like you have like a two pound hammer. Think about throwing that 250 miles an hour and what it can do. Now think about a 60 pound hammer and throwing that at that speed. It is B-
Federico Ramallo (49:41) Yeah, the
angular moment, you know, it’s ridiculous.
Jonathan Collazo (49:49) It’s ridiculous, dude. Like, I mean, that thing was so when we first spawned it, because we were we had to test it. This is in Vegas. So we had some friends out there. ⁓ There’s a metal artist, actually, ⁓ Lewis ⁓ over there who makes amazing art. ⁓ And we were at his shop. We took over his shop. He was so kind and let us take over his shop. And we were just drinking beer and building.
Federico Ramallo (49:51) Ha ha ha!
the
Jonathan Collazo (50:16) But of course we were like, okay, we’re ready to spin this massive weapon thing. ⁓ So we tied it to the back of a flatbed truck and drove it out. Everybody hit on the, well, some people were hiding underneath the truck. And then I even flew a drone over so that we can look down at it and make sure that, you know, spinning properly, that it wasn’t coming apart and it could hit the speeds that we wanted to hit.
Federico Ramallo (50:26) Hahaha
Jonathan Collazo (50:44) And that was the test, dude. That was the test. was like, it was sick. Like we were sitting out. If this thing came off, it would have gone through the truck. So it was epic, you know? Yeah. So people don’t understand. Yeah. People don’t understand how crazy and how big these things actually are and how expensive they are. ⁓ that battle bot. ⁓
Federico Ramallo (50:56) Yeah, easily, easily, yeah. I mean, it’s so much energy.
Jonathan Collazo (51:13) If you were to like add the time and value and materials and everything on with, you know, the fact that we’re in Silicon Valley, because we have some of the most expensive everything here, ⁓ that would have been a $200,000 robot. yeah. And that was to get destroyed in three minutes, dude. But you know what? It was, like you said, the most fun.
Federico Ramallo (51:26) Yes.
Wow! ⁓
Jonathan Collazo (51:41) thing we’ve ever built.
Federico Ramallo (51:44) And I understand it was undefeated. It was never…
Jonathan Collazo (51:49) Yeah,
because we got we got to fight twice like the actual championship fights were two. So it was undefeated on that. ⁓ It was we had two other fights, one that was not meant to be like a fun fight that we were begging this robot that like was so cool, dude. The guys, the the engineering behind it was really cool. And the art piece because we had one of our shells was designed by a Bugatti.
Federico Ramallo (51:58) Right.
Jonathan Collazo (52:19) designer and and the metal artist so we wanted to destroy it and of course everybody’s like dude that’s supposed to be hanging the wall like and we’re like no we want to destroy it we came out here to destroy stuff we want to destroy it so there was this guy we had this fight we know this fun fight where he destroyed that show and everybody’s like you guys are nuts man why would you do that you know so so we had that
Federico Ramallo (52:32) hahahaha
Jonathan Collazo (52:46) that shell destroyed and then we did have a loss but it was like on another competition. So it wasn’t like the same like, you know, like the Olympic type, you know, like show basically. Yeah, but still we didn’t, mean, seriously, if we would have lost every fight, I would have still been like this, like grinning ear to ear and stuck like, oh man, this is awesome.
Federico Ramallo (53:01) Right! Amazing! Amazing! ⁓
hahahaha
Let’s do it again, yay!
Jonathan Collazo (53:16) Exactly,
I totally do. Yeah, totally. 100%. So you gotta come see them. We keep them in the hallway here. So if you ever come visit the office out here, I’ll show them to you so you can understand how crazy these things actually are.
Federico Ramallo (53:20) Amazing.
⁓ amazing. Yeah, I would love to, for sure. Awesome. So what is the future ⁓ looking like? Are you planning to ⁓ grow firebot labs, spending more time on australia air? ⁓ What the future looks like?
Jonathan Collazo (53:36) Thank you. ⁓
It looks really bright, Firebot Labs, we still taking investments on that end, but they’ll probably end here in the next couple of weeks because we’re negotiating some pretty big investor deals at the moment. But that’s already had so many clients for it that it’s going to be hard to keep up with the amount of clients that we have. that’s kind of the problem now is we need more people.
Federico Ramallo (54:16) nice.
Jonathan Collazo (54:29) and more money to supply enough equipment for all the clients that are interested in using FireBot Labs. And then, Ostrich J will always keep making crazy things. So that’s like a never-ending, you know, like, who’s next, what thing are we building next, and the projects that are right now and the lines for that are incredible. you know, talk about ⁓ subsonic jets, ⁓ you know. ⁓
Federico Ramallo (54:29) Yeah
Ha ha ha.
Jonathan Collazo (54:57) ⁓ dude, it’s never ending. It’s crazy stuff. It’s pretty crazy stuff. Ostrich Air will always be super exciting and Fireball Labs will always be doing ⁓ super human, ⁓ amazing things with autonomy and everything we learn on the Ostrich Air side.
Federico Ramallo (55:18) Right,
right, amazing, Yeah, we’re running out of time, ⁓ so we should wrap it up. But, you know, any final remarks before we wrap it up?
Jonathan Collazo (55:26) I can’t, yeah.
Just do what you love. Don’t think you can’t do it. Just work hard. There’s always somebody that believes in the things that you believe in. And if you can find those guys like we were talking about earlier, those 5, 3 a.m. guys, you’ll be able to achieve anything you want to do. Just be happy. Take on the errors. If you make mistakes, that’s part of the process.
You’re gonna have good and bad days. If not life will be boring so And how you overcome them is everything you know so That’s that’s what I gotta say about it, man
Federico Ramallo (56:15) Amazing, amazing, very inspiring. So thank you, Jonathan, for being here today. And I’m looking forward to continue the conversation.
Jonathan Collazo (56:18) Thank you.
A pleasure, always, and see you soon. ⁓
Federico Ramallo (56:26) Un placer.