Patrick J. McGinnis

Patrick J. McGinnis is an international venture capitalist and the author of Fear of Missing Out: Practical Decision-Making in a World of Overwhelming Choice and The 10% Entrepreneur: Live Your Startup Dream Without Quitting Your Day Job. Patrick coined the term FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), as well as the related term FOBO (Fear of a Better Option) in a 2004 article in the student newspaper of Harvard Business School. Since that time, FOMO has since been added to the dictionary and FOBO has become an increasingly popular framework to describe choice paralysis. Patrick is also the host of the hit podcast, FOMO Sapiens (www.fomosapiens.com), where entrepreneurial thinkers unpack how they make decisions. He has been featured in The New York Times, Politico, The Financial Times, The Guardian, and Inc, and gave a popular 2019 TED Talk on FOBO and decision-making. Originally from Maine, he has visited 103 countries and now lives in NYC. As a 10% Entrepreneur, Patrick has built a diverse portfolio of investments outside of his day job. This portfolio encompasses fast growing new ventures in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, including ipsy, the world’s largest online beauty community and the British stage production of The Last King of Scotland. As an early-stage venture capital investor, Patrick serves as a venture partner and member of the investment committee at the Salkantay Exponential Fund (SxF), Peru's first venture capital fund. He is also at Partner at Mentors Fund. Patrick also advises the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation on a range of matters relating to early-stage finance in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. A graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Business School, Patrick is an avid traveler, writer, and speaker, and has visited more 100 countries. He is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Find more at www.patrickmcginnis.com.