# Will O'Brien

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/builders/will-obrien/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Real Alpha has cut 7 moments of Will O'Brien (Co-founder & president, Ulysses) talking, from an interview on Cheeky Pint published Oct 15, 2026.

- Role: Co-founder & president, Ulysses
- About: Co-founded Ulysses, building low-cost autonomous underwater robots for seagrass restoration, subsea inspection and Navy missions.
- Company: [Ulysses](https://realalpha.app/companies/#ulysses)
- On X: https://x.com/Willob

## What Will O'Brien said

- [Scaling underwater drones requires rethinking the supply chain](https://realalpha.app/s/scaling-underwater-drones-requires-rethinking-the-supply/)
  Cheeky Pint · Oct 15, 2026 · 5 min
  > “For us, it's scale, lead time. There's about 20 million aerial drones built every year. There's maybe 1,000 to 2,000 underwater drones.” — Will O'Brien · [24:39](https://realalpha.app/v/Ab2AGgoF5hU/?t=1479)
- [Underwater drones can cost far less than Navy vehicles](https://realalpha.app/s/underwater-drones-can-cost-far-less-than-navy-vehicles/)
  Cheeky Pint · Oct 15, 2026 · 5 min
  > “But if you're working with a navy, we can sell them for as cheap as $50,000. dollars.” — Will O'Brien · [38:57](https://realalpha.app/v/Ab2AGgoF5hU/?t=2337)
- [Undersea cables need persistent monitoring](https://realalpha.app/s/undersea-cables-need-persistent-monitoring/)
  Cheeky Pint · Oct 15, 2026 · 4 min
  > “All of these areas should just be like persistently monitored 24-7. But it's much too expensive to do that manually.” — Will O'Brien · [47:01](https://realalpha.app/v/Ab2AGgoF5hU/?t=2821)
- [Underwater robots must compute locally because communications are slow](https://realalpha.app/s/underwater-robots-must-compute-locally-because/)
  Cheeky Pint · Oct 15, 2026 · 3 min
  > “Yes, you can do like 10 kilobytes per second over like five kilometers.” — Will O'Brien · [28:56](https://realalpha.app/v/Ab2AGgoF5hU/?t=1736)
- [Ulysses is building robots to inspect wind cables and cut fishing line](https://realalpha.app/s/ulysses-is-building-robots-to-inspect-wind-cables-and-cut/)
  Cheeky Pint · Oct 15, 2026 · 2 min
  > “we're building an implement that will cut the fishing lines off of the floating offshore wind lines.” — Will O'Brien · [32:31](https://realalpha.app/v/Ab2AGgoF5hU/?t=1951)
- [Seagrass restoration starts with mapping suitable habitat](https://realalpha.app/s/seagrass-restoration-starts-with-mapping-suitable-habitat/)
  Cheeky Pint · Oct 15, 2026 · 3 min
  > “Then you identify where are the plants flowering and producing seeds. And you go and collect the seeds.” — Will O'Brien · [13:58](https://realalpha.app/v/Ab2AGgoF5hU/?t=838)
- [Cheaper ocean access could enable persistent operations](https://realalpha.app/s/cheaper-ocean-access-could-enable-persistent-operations/)
  Cheeky Pint · Oct 15, 2026 · 2 min
  > “if you could actually go and have persistent robotic systems out there doing the important work, then there's a lot of new things I think that you can do.” — Will O'Brien · [18:07](https://realalpha.app/v/Ab2AGgoF5hU/?t=1087)

## The episode

- [The company building underwater drones for $50,000](https://realalpha.app/v/Ab2AGgoF5hU/) · Cheeky Pint · Oct 15, 2026