Inside the $9 billion Texas startup building a drone armada for the U.S. Navy

It was September 2022, and Dino Mavrookas was trying to build the future of U.S. naval power atop an $800 dinghy. A former Navy SEAL turned tech investor, Mavrookas had recently launched the startup Saronic Technologies with a vision for shoring up America’s defenses: cheap, fast autonomous boats that could be commanded in swarms, armed with sensors and weapons, and manufactured at factory scale.