7 Wild Business Ideas for this $3 Trillion Dollar Frontier

About this video

Sam and Shaan interview Will O’Brien, founder of Ulyses, about the emerging ocean economy and why it represents a major entrepreneurial opportunity comparable to space exploration. They explore various ocean-based businesses—from seagrass restoration and autonomous underwater vehicles to subsea cable infrastructure and marine geoengineering—and discuss how AI, robotics, and 3D printing have opened a new technology window for building hardware companies that previously weren’t possible.

Key takeaways

• Will argues the ocean economy ($3 trillion annually, covering 70% of Earth, supporting 1 billion jobs and 3 billion people’s food) is a massive but under-innovated frontier compared to space, with most maritime technology still using decades-old systems.
• Ulyses built autonomous underwater vehicles for seagrass restoration on just $2 million in funding and $1 million in first-year revenue by leveraging cheaper technology (3D printers, Starlink, lower battery costs) and rethinking vehicle design from first principles rather than adopting legacy systems.
• Will identifies multiple ocean opportunities: subsea cable defense (China is publicly advertising cable-cutting capability), data centers in the ocean for AI cooling, marine geoengineering to restore fish stocks and draw down carbon, and shipwreck treasure hunting with profit-sharing agreements.
• The convergence of AI, robotics, and 3D printing has opened a new ’technology window’ for hardware startups that mirrors past waves (mobile, software-as-a-service), meaning founders have a limited time to capture these opportunities before incumbents solidify.
• Will observes a shift in tech entrepreneurship toward more physically embodied, confident founders (the ‘mind, body, spirit’ integration) who embrace the tech bro identity openly, contrasting with earlier generations of tech founders.

Episode details: published April 7, 2025 · 30K views · 1:16:15 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The business ideas, figures and results discussed are the hosts’ and guests’ own claims, shared as brainstorming and entertainment — not verified facts and not investment advice.

← Previous: How to build a $100M+ newsletter business · Next: The Happiest Man in Atlantis (A Short Story) →

All My First Million videos · My First Million profile · My First Million (official site)