Patrick McGinnis coined FOMO and brings fresh, practical thinking to decision-making, entrepreneurship and navigating overwhelming choice.
5.00 of 5
Top rated!5 of 5
At a time when living and working decisively has taken on new urgency, McGinnis’ gave our members an actionable set of strategies for doing so. He is an engaging and compelling speaker.
Bradley Saft
YPO
Patrick J. McGinnis is a venture capitalist, bestselling author, keynote speaker and creator of the hit podcast FOMO Sapiens. Dubbed a “pop entrepreneur” by New York magazine, he is best known for coining FOMO, Fear of Missing Out and its lesser-known twin, FOBO, Fear of a Better Option. His work explores decision-making, influence and entrepreneurship, translating complex challenges into practical ideas audiences can use in their professional and personal lives. With keynotes delivered around the world, Patrick combines insight, interaction and humor to help people make better decisions and think more entrepreneurially.
Patrick J. McGinnis is a venture capitalist, bestselling author, keynote speaker and creator of the hit podcast FOMO Sapiens. His work sits at the intersection of decision-making, influence and entrepreneurship, exploring how people can make smarter choices, embrace entrepreneurial thinking and navigate a world where possibilities can quickly become overwhelming.
Dubbed a “pop entrepreneur” by New York magazine, Patrick brings together his experience in business, investing and entrepreneurship with ideas that have become part of everyday culture. He has spent more than a decade speaking to audiences around the globe, delivering programs that are inspiring, interactive, fun and highly practical.
For organizations looking for a speaker who can connect entrepreneurship with the realities of modern decision-making, Patrick offers a distinctive perspective grounded in both experience and internationally recognized ideas.
Patrick McGinnis coined the term FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – as well as its lesser-known twin, FOBO – Fear of a Better Option – in a 2004 article at Harvard Business School. What began as an observation about human behavior grew into a concept recognized around the world. FOMO has since been added to the dictionary and has become part of the language people use to describe modern life.
FOBO focuses on another familiar challenge: the tendency to delay decisions because a better option might appear. Patrick brought the concept to a wider audience through his popular TED Talk, How to Make Faster Decisions.
His work on FOMO, FOBO and decision-making has been covered by international media including The New York Times, Le Monde, the Financial Times and El País. Through his writing, speaking and podcasting, Patrick examines how these behaviors shape the choices people make and offers practical approaches for dealing with them.
Patrick is the author of two international bestsellers. The 10% Entrepreneur: Live Your Startup Dream Without Quitting Your Day Job explores how people can build entrepreneurial ventures without immediately walking away from their existing careers. Fear of Missing Out: Practical Decision-Making in a World of Overwhelming Choice turns his work on FOMO and decision-making into practical tools for navigating a world filled with options.
He is also the brand ambassador for Latin American technology company MercadoLibre's award-winning “Fear of Missing Audience” campaign. In addition, Patrick appears in the cautionary cryptocurrency documentary This is Not Financial Advice, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
His background combines entrepreneurship, venture capital and international business. A graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Business School, Patrick has visited more than 115 countries and is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French.
Over the past ten years, Patrick McGinnis has delivered keynote speeches to thousands of people around the world. His speaking has taken him from New York to San Francisco, Miami to London, Baku to Dakar, Yangon to Buenos Aires – as well as to audiences around the world through virtual events.
Patrick's keynotes and workshops center on decision-making, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking. His style combines compelling ideas with audience interaction, practical takeaways and an engaging approach designed to make complex topics immediately relevant.
His programs can help audiences understand how FOMO and FOBO influence behavior, approach decisions with greater clarity and adopt a more entrepreneurial mindset in their careers and organizations. Rather than treating these themes as abstract concepts, Patrick connects them with challenges people encounter in their working and personal lives.
When you book Patrick McGinnis for your event, the program can be adapted to the specific needs of your organization and audience. Patrick customizes both the content and format of his keynotes and workshops and also accepts commissions, allowing organizations to create a program aligned with their objectives.
His key areas include:
Patrick delivers keynotes in English, Spanish and Portuguese, making his programs suitable for international organizations and global events. Whether addressing entrepreneurs, executives, employees or broader professional audiences, he brings together his experience as an investor, author and entrepreneur with the ideas that have made FOMO and FOBO internationally recognized concepts.
Book Patrick McGinnis for a keynote or workshop that gives audiences a fresh perspective on how they make choices, approach opportunities and bring entrepreneurial thinking into their lives and work.
5 of 5
At a time when living and working decisively has taken on new urgency, McGinnis’ gave our members an actionable set of strategies for doing so. He is an engaging and compelling speaker.
Bradley Saft YPO
5 of 5
Patrick's connection with our audience was apparent from the outset. If you want a lesson about living decisively, there is no better messenger than him. As one of our attendees wrote afterwards, "His speech made me look at my life differently."
Annastasia Seebohm CEO, Brilliant Minds Foundation
5 of 5
Googlers are a great crowd of enthusiastic, engaged, and curious people - but they let no one off easy as they're really bright and ask the tough questions! Patrick did an amazing job educating our NYC office on the ins and outs of 10% Entrepreneurship.
Stacey Sasaki Google
5 of 5
Patrick delivered an engaging and thought- provoking keynote tailored to our industry and work. His insights on FOMO and the psychology of persuasion provided our team with a fresh perspective and a strategic framework for client engagement. If you're looking for a speaker who is both insightful and practical, Patrick is a great choice.
Carlos Rojas Girao CEO, IPG Mediabrands Latin America
5 of 5
In a world where capturing attention is harder than ever, Patrick McGinnis breaks through the noise. Patrick’s ability to blend humor, business strategy, and behavioral science made his session a standout at our event. He doesn’t just present ideas—he leaves you with a playbook for action.
Eduardo Lebrija EVP, Paramount+
5 of 5
Patrick brought his deep expertise in decision- making and marketing behavioral economics, and leveraged his speaking and PR savvy to make our award-winning Fear of Missing Audience campaign transformative. Another plus: he’s funny and unassuming, which makes working with him really enjoyable.
Sean Summers CMO, MercadoLibre
Keynote by Patrick McGinnis:
Every bad strategic decision Patrick has ever studied had one thing in common: someone in the room was more afraid of missing out than of being wrong.
FOMO® isn’t just a social media problem; it’s the hidden engine behind asset bubbles, speculative mergers, and the strategic pivots that looked like leadership at the time and looked like panic six months later.
This keynote gives leaders a framework to recognize when fear is driving the decision before it’s too late to change course. It’s one of Patrick’s most requested leadership keynote speaking topics.
Subject areas: Leadership, Decision-Making, Technology
Formats: Keynote, workshop, fireside chat
Keynote by Patrick McGinnis:
The question most organizations are asking about AI is whether they’re moving fast enough.
The question they should be asking is: toward what? FOMOAI, the fear that if you don’t act on AI immediately, you’ll be left behind forever, is producing some of the most expensive, least strategic decisions in business right now.
Patrick isn’t selling AI hype. He’s applying the same framework that explained FOMO® to give leaders a clear, repeatable way to tell the difference between strategic AI adoption and panic-driven spending.
Subject areas: Decision-Making, Strategy, Technology
Formats: Keynote, workshop, fireside chat
Keynote by Patrick McGinnis:
FOMO® doesn’t feel like fear when you’re inside it. It feels like urgency, like everyone else has figured something out that you haven’t gotten to yet.
This keynote goes inside the psychology of distraction and compulsive connection.
Patrick shows audiences exactly what’s happening in their own minds, using the same psychological lens he developed, naming FOMO® twenty years before anyone else was talking about it, and gives them practical tools to stay centered.
Subject areas: Decision-Making, Mental Health, Technology
Formats: Keynote, workshop, fireside ch
Keynote by Patrick McGinnis:
FOBO®, Fear of a Better Option, is what happens when too many good choices produce no choice at all.
Talented people stay in jobs they’ve outgrown because something better might be coming. Great deals die in committee because nobody wants to be the one who commits too early. The best option sometimes never gets chosen because choosing means closing every other door.
Based on Patrick’s TED Talk and his research into decision-making under uncertainty, this session shows how to recognize FOBO® in real time and faster decision-making without waiting for perfection.
Subject areas: Leadership, Decision-Making, Psychology
Formats: Keynote, workshop, fireside chat
Keynote by Patrick McGinnis:
Before FOMO® was a hashtag, it was a marketing strategy. Every campaign that has ever made someone feel like they were missing something was engineered around the same psychological principle Patrick named in 2004.
This keynote decodes the FOMO® Persuasion Model™, giving marketers a repeatable framework for building cultural relevance and audience loyalty that survives algorithm changes, the same model behind some of the most successful campaigns of the last decade.
Subject areas: Sales & Marketing, Decision-Making
Formats: Keynote, workshop, fireside chat
Keynote by Patrick McGinnis:
Most people who want to build something never do, but the idea is usually there. What stops them is the belief that starting requires betting everything on being right.
The 10% Entrepreneur is built on a different premise: that the best entrepreneurial thinking happens when the downside is manageable enough to let you think clearly.
Based on Patrick’s bestselling book and his own experience building a portfolio of ventures while keeping a full-time career, this keynote shows leaders and their teams how to build an entrepreneurial mindset without the kind of pressure that distorts judgment.
Subject areas: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Personal Growth
Formats: Keynote, workshop, fireside chat
Watch Patrick McGinnis in action!
Watch Patrick McGinnis in action!
