The company building underwater drones for $50,000

Will O'Brien, founder and CEO of Ulysses, joins John and Chris Sacca for a pint to discuss how underwater autonomous robots are scaling up to solve critical ocean challenges.

They cover the technical history of Guinness (including the math breakthrough that created Student's t-test), why seagrass is an overlooked super-sequester of carbon, and the engineering required to operate robots thousands of meters beneath the surface. Will also breaks down Ulysses' vertical integration strategy, the reality of eco-pragmatism versus "green tape," and what it takes to sell hard tech to defense and offshore energy sectors.

Timestamps

(00:00:30) R&D at Guinness

(00:05:43) Planting seagrass with robots

(00:16:53) Lowering the cost of doing things in the ocean

(00:19:00) Landing in a Chinese prison
(00:20:38) Works in Progress

(00:27:53) Building robots to withstand saltwater

(00:31:08) Live use cases for underwater robots

(00:46:03) The undersea cable vulnerability

Resources:

Guinness Quality Standards: https://www.guinnesscelebrate.com/our-quality/quality-standards

No Great Stagnation in Guinness by Will O’Brien: https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/no-great-stagnation-in-guinness