Three Startups Reinventing Critical Infrastructure
This week, a16z American Dynamism Films premiered three short documentaries highlighting companies tackling some of America's biggest industrial challenges: Ulysses, Mariana Materials, and Radiant. Before watching those films, we're revisiting conversations with the founders behind each company.
You'll hear Will O'Brien explain why autonomous underwater robots could unlock a new era of ocean exploration and security, Turner Caldwell discuss rebuilding America's critical minerals supply chain and modernizing mining, and Doug Bernauer share why portable nuclear microreactors could transform how we generate power. Together, these conversations offer a look at the technologies—and the founders—working to rebuild the industrial foundations of the United States.
Resources:
Follow Will O'Brien on X: https://x.com/Willob
Follow Turner Caldwell on X: https://x.com/tbc415
Follow Doug Bernauer on X: https://x.com/dougbernauer
Follow Erin Price-Wright on X: https://x.com/espricewright
Follow Ryan McEntush on X: https://x.com/rmcentush
Follow Theo Jaffee on X: https://x.com/theojaffee
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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The Ocean: Earth’s $2.5 Trillion Last Frontier | Will O’Brien, Co-founder of Ulysses
Will O’Brien is the Co-founder of Ulysses, building autonomous, low cost robots for the ocean.
Will considers the ocean humanity’s next great frontier. It makes up over $2.5 trillion of economic activity, considering things like fishing, aquaculture, shipping, mining, communications infrastructure, and defense. Yet we know more about the surface of the moon’s of Saturn than we do the bottom of our own ocean.
We talk about Ulysses first product, restoring plant life in the ocean, their modular autonomous underwater robotics platform, advice for anyone selling to governments, crazy businesses that could eventually evolve in the ocean, and why the way we finance startups needs to change.
Will also loves conspiracy theories, and we talk about some of our favorites, and why he thinks people who believe them could make good startup founders.
Thank you to Will’s brother’s Harry and Jacob O’Brien, and to upcoming guest of the show Eoghan McCabe for helping brainstorm topics for Will.
Special thanks to Ramp for supporting this episode. It's the corporate card and expense management platform used by over 40,000 companies, like Shopify, CBRE and Stripe. Time is money. Save both with Ramp. Get $250 for signing-up here: https://ramp.com/ThePeel
Timestamps:
(4:03) Peace offering of Dubai Chocolate
(5:30) Modern internet theory
(7:40) The ocean is the last frontier
(11:53) Ulysses: read/write layer of the ocean
(13:35) The $2.5 trillion ocean economy
(15:14) Current ocean unit economics
(18:50) Starting with seagrass ecosystem restoration
(24:13) Modular, underwater autonomous robots
(27:31) Starting Ulysses with a group chat
(29:51) Raising a Seed from Lowercarbon with no network off a cold calendar invite
(32:24) Economic use cases for ocean robotics
(36:07) Spiritual energy from the ocean
(42:36) First Ramp podcast ad in Irish
(43:21) Floating cities, sub tours, deep sea mining, iron fertilization
(51:47) $10+ billion in shipwrecked treasure
(53:18 Atlantis is real
(59:46) Craziest alien conspiracy theories
(1:01:28) Sinking the titanic to create the Fed
(1:04:19) Conspiracy theory believers are good founders
(1:07:55) How to sell to the government
(1:13:28) Writing a letter to an Irish billionaire
(1:16:00) Finding meaning after living with Monks in Nepal
(1:27:10) Why financial innovation precludes economic dominance
(1:44:01) The SPV peddler business model
(1:46:35) Should we bring back SPAC’s?
Referenced
Ulysses: https://www.ulysses.eco/
Careers at Ulysses: https://www.ulysses.eco/jobs
The Richat Structure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure
Jesse Michael’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JesseMichels
Brad Jacobs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Jacobs_(businessman)
Follow Will
Twitter: https://x.com/willobri
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will0brien
Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak
Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/
"Ocean is the new space" - 7 Wild Ideas for the $3 Trillion Dollar Frontier
[free]
Episode 694: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Will O’Brien ( https://x.com/willobri ) about how the ocean is the new hot girl.
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Show Notes:
(0:00) Ocean is the new space
(8:50) Ocean surveying
(10:25) Sea grass restoration
(16:39) Defense drones
(22:34) Underwater cable networks
(31:51) Technology windows
(38:16) Lab-grown seafood
(41:03) Pirate treasure profit sharing
(44:03) Marine geo-engineering
(47:43) A new era for tech guys
(57:52) Who Will admires
(1:01:00) Underrated conspiracy theories
(1:10:27) Becoming a monk
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Links:
• Ulysses - https://www.ulysses.eco/
• Saildrone - https://www.saildrone.com/
• Saronic - https://www.saronic.com/
• Wildtype Foods - https://www.wildtypefoods.com/
• Rainmaker - https://www.rainmaker.com/
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Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
• Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com
• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.
• Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!
Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC
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Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth
• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano