How Ulysses Prices an Underwater Robot
Will O'Brien on why Ulysses went from seagrass restoration to underwater robots, how it brings the supply chain in-house to build at scale, and why selling to navies suits a venture-backed company
· 7 min read
Will O'Brien, co-founder and president of Ulysses, interviewed by John Collison, with investor Chris Sacca (Cheeky Pint)
Will O'Brien is the co-founder and president of Ulysses, a robotics company that builds autonomous surface and underwater vehicles for ocean work. He is Irish, grew up by the sea, and earlier started a scooter-sharing company in the UK and Ireland, where he learned to sell to government. Ulysses began three years ago with seagrass restoration and now works with the US Navy and an offshore wind developer, and it has four co-founders. Lower Carbon Capital was its first investor, and the company plans to open one of the largest underwater drone factories in the world next year.
Summary
Will O'Brien says Ulysses built a general-purpose ocean robot platform because every job underwater, from planting seagrass to hunting mines, is done today from a ship that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. He designed the underwater vehicle from Lego-like modules, so the company could sell it to a navy or an energy firm without new R&D, and he sells it for as little as $50,000 against about $5 million for the common alternative. The company is now short of production, so it is bringing sonar and navigation in-house and building a factory to move toward millions of drones a year. He argues that venture-backed companies suit slow government buyers, because contracts are sticky once won. These signals are from an interview that John Collison did with Will O'Brien on Cheeky Pint.
