Sean O'Sullivan (engineer)

Sean O'Sullivan of SOSV
Sean O'Sullivan of SOSV

Sean O’Sullivan is an entrepreneur, founder, and investor, based in Princeton, New Jersey.[1] He is currently the founder and managing partner of SOSV, a venture capital firm focused on deep tech startups in health and climate tech startups.[2][3]

Education

Sean O'Sullivan in his dorm at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the early 1980s

O'Sullivan graduated from high school at 16.[4] O'Sullivan holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Fine Arts in Film Production from the University of Southern California.[5][6][7]

Career

In 1986, O’Sullivan co-founded MapInfo, which was an early provider of digital street maps for personal computers and went public in 1994.[8]

In 1996, O’Sullivan and George Favaloro coined the term "Cloud Computing".[9][10][11]

In 2007, he founded Avego, which released a ridesharing app on the iPhone in 2008, matching riders to drivers in real-time.[12][13] The company, now known as Carma Technology, develops patented systems for real-time ridesharing as well as app-based tolling.[14] In 2025, Carma filed a complaint against Uber in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, claiming that Uber infringed on five Carma patents, each listing Sean O'Sullivan as the inventor, that describe the fundamentals of ride-sharing and delivery apps.[15][16]

In 2011, Sean O’Sullivan spent two seasons as an investor on the Irish TV show Dragon's Den.[17]

References

  1. ^ "Sean O'Sullivan". NJBIZ. February 17, 2025. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
  2. ^ Liu, Coco (July 5, 2023). "What One of Climate Tech's Earliest Investors Thinks Is Coming Next". Bloomberg News. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
  3. ^ Chant, Tim De (April 16, 2024). "SOSV founder says climate investing is a 'war effort' as firm closes $306M fund". TechCrunch.
  4. ^ "Sean O'Sullivan". Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering. 2025.
  5. ^ Chernow, Robert A. "New Horizons Speaker Series". Rensselaer. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  6. ^ Seldner, Joe (February 13, 2018). "From Humble Start to King of the Start-Up". Community News.
  7. ^ "VC Corner: Sean O'Sullivan of SOS Ventures & Dragon's Den (MapInfo, Harmonix, Netflix, Leap Motion)". Startup Grind. October 21, 2025.
  8. ^ Seldner, Joe (February 13, 2018). "From Humble Start to King of the Start-Up". Community News.
  9. ^ Regalado, Antonio. "Who Coined 'Cloud Computing'?". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  10. ^ Kennedy, John (17 May 2013). "Cloud visionary and RTÉ 'dragon' to chair Govt Entrepreneurship Forum". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  11. ^ "Sean O'Sullivan". Bloomsberg business week. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  12. ^ Chen, Brian X. (September 9, 2008). "DEMOfall 2008: IPhone App Enables Virtual Hitchhiking". Wired.
  13. ^ Wolverton, Troy (September 9, 2008). "'Distributed Web' featured at DEMOfall". The Mercury News.
  14. ^ Lawrence, Cate (November 8, 2021). "An app that stops people cheating about their vehicle occupancy". TNW.
  15. ^ Korosec, Kirsten (May 30, 2025). "How a decade-old patent dispute could upend Uber's business". TechCrunch.
  16. ^ Fitzgerald, John (January 16, 2025). "Uber infringes multiple rideshare software patents, complaint says". Westlaw Today.
  17. ^ Kennedy, John (November 28, 2011). "Tech entrepreneur is RTÉ's newest 'Dragon'". Silicon Republic.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_O%27Sullivan_(engineer)