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. Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/the-company-building-underwater-drones Subscribe to Cheeky Pint Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pl7WQeevtNHhggqzubUDR?si=RgAdQq6-TDOA8sPS8CeY-A Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-company-building-underwater-drones-for-%2450-000/id1821055332?i=1000796483252 Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/the-company-building-underwater-drones?r=87kl83&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Key moments 00:00:00 Introduction 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