Patrick McGinnis

Venture capitalist, writer
Patrick J. McGinnis is a venture capitalist, writer and speaker.

Why you should listen

Patrick J. McGinnis is the author of Fear of Missing Out: Practical Decision-Making in a World of Overwhelming Choice and the creator and host of HBR Presents: FOMO Sapiens, a podcast distributed by Harvard Business Review. He coined the term "FOMO," short for "fear of missing out," which was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. He is also the creator of the term "FOBO" or "fear of a better option" and has been featured as the creator of both terms in media outlets including the New York Times, The Financial Times, Inc. magazine, Boston magazine, MSNBC and Cheddar.

McGinnis is also the author of the international bestseller The 10% Entrepreneur: Live Your Start-up Dream Without Quitting Your Day Job, a guide to part-time entrepreneurship.

A graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Business School, McGinnis has visited more than one hundred countries and is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French. He is a proud member of the Leadership Council at Sesame Workshop and is an avid fan of Grover, who is clearly the Muppet with the most FOMO. He lives in New York City.

Patrick McGinnis’ TED talk