The Epic of… Will O'Brien (Ulysses)

We're kicking off a new monthly series. The concept is simple: we put a founder who's building something straight out of a sci-fi novel on stage, break down their grand vision, and let a live crowd decide if it actually holds water. Our first guest is Will O'Brien, co-founder of Ulysses. They build cheap, autonomous ocean robots. They’re starting off by restoring seagrass meadows (which trap carbon faster than rainforests), but the plan is to tackle any part of the ocean economy that still relies on expensive human crews. They’ve already got real revenue, five generations of vehicles, and they name their robots after sea monsters. The company is literally called Ulysses, so the epic branding writes itself. The format is a live narrative stress-test. We'll spend 45 minutes with Will unpacking the actual reality of his business: the vision, the team he's recruiting, the skeptics he has to convince, and whatever is most likely to kill the company. After that, it's on you. The audience gets to grill him with the hardest questions. We take a vote at the start of the night, and another at…