A few years ago, the meeting would have ended early if you had told a venture capitalist that your founder had spent his twenties on combat deployments rather than writing code in a dorm. The instinct has changed. Nowadays, if you walk through the defense-tech corridors of Austin or Costa Mesa, you’ll see a certain type of resume being passed around the room with almost reverence: eight combat tours, an MBA from Wharton, a time spent in private equity, and a startup raising money faster than anyone can spend it.
The neatest example of this kind is Dino Mavrookas. Growing up in a Greek immigrant family that owned a diner in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, he enlisted after 9/11 without any military ties and served for eleven years as a Navy SEAL, including time with the unit that most people only talk about. Then, in 2022, he co-founded Saronic, a company that manufactures autonomous warships, after attending business school and learning how to construct financial models in his apartment in between classes. It was estimated to be worth $9.25 billion by the beginning of 2026. Even though it’s not a typo, it still seems like one.
Sentiment plays a role, but it’s not what’s attracting the money. Investors seem to think that operators who have actually used military equipment under fire have a deeper understanding of its shortcomings than any Lockheed engineer could. It makes sense. You can’t get the same level of product knowledge from a requirements document as a man who has witnessed a piece of equipment jam at the worst possible time. To be honest, it’s still unclear how well that translates into managing a manufacturing company with 1,000 employees. Discipline across a balance sheet and discipline under pressure are two different muscles.
It’s becoming difficult to ignore the numbers surrounding the wider wave. The company that essentially opened this door, Anduril, raised $5 billion this spring, doubled its valuation to about $61 billion, and it still anticipates losses for years. After purchasing a 60-year-old shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana, Saronic allegedly completed the construction of its first ship there in roughly nine months, which is regarded as the fastest shipbuilding in the United States since World War II. You can picture the older shipfitters watching the new autonomous hulls roll out outside that yard, not sure if they are seeing a replacement or a rebirth.
It’s important to keep in mind that both SpaceX and Tesla encountered the same skepticism and eye-rolling regarding overconfident founders who would never deliver. That’s what some of these defense startups will do. Once the contracts dry up or the geopolitics change, others will quietly fold. Funds such as The Veteran Fund are placing a large wager that the resiliency these founders acquired while serving in the military will manifest itself just when the business becomes harsh.
It’s difficult to ignore the slight tension beneath the festivities as you watch this play out. After all, we are paying huge sums of money to businesses whose products are made to end lives more quickly, and part of the sales pitch includes the founders’ wartime credibility. Mavrookas himself sounds more like a concerned citizen than a hype man; he has publicly expressed concern about the vulnerability of the country’s electrical grid. Perhaps that’s the true reason the money keeps coming in. Those who have witnessed mishaps often prepare for them. For now, the market is referring to that as an asset.
