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 the end to see if he actually won you over. That shift in the room is the whole point of the event. Come hang out if you're a founder, an engineer who'd rather build physical robots than another chatbot, someone who invests in hard problems, or if you just want to watch someone defend their life's work in real time. 📍 A space in the Mission, San Francisco (address sent on RSVP) 🗓️ July 8th, doors 5:30, we start 6:00 🎟️ ~60 seats, curated. Recorded and clipped. About the Host:Savant is an early-stage fund and ecosystem for exceptional technologists pursuing good quests: hard, consequential, civilization-defining ideas. We help top founders explore & start new companies in Physical AI through a powerful network of peers, a dedicated hardware lab, and founder-led support – often before we ever write a check. Together, let's move civilization forward! Hosted by Hugo Amsellem (Babylon) and Jeson Lee (Savant).