From Navy SEAL tours to autonomous ships, Austin veterans turn missions into startups

They served their country in uniform. Now, veterans in Austin are building companies to take on some of the biggest challenges in defense, technology, and space.

From autonomous ships to satellite imagery and rocket motors, their missions have changed. Their drive to solve hard problems hasn't. This Veterans Day, we thank them for their service.

Saronic: Dino Mavrookas

Dino Mavrookas spent 11 years as a Navy SEAL, including eight combat tours. Now his Austin startup, Saronic, builds autonomous ships. He co-founded the company with fellow veteran Rob Lehman.

Mavrookas spoke to his team while introducing Pete Hegseth at a Saronic event:

"We have to take risks. We have to deliver on time. We have to iterate with the customer. Build for speed and scale, and make sure that we get the best products and the best technology in the hands of our warfighters as fast as possible. Good news for you all. This team answered that call."

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SkyFi: Luke Fischer

Luke Fischer flew helicopters for the Army, including in special operations. Today his Austin company, SkyFi, helps people find and order satellite imagery through a website and app.

Fischer knows how long that process can take. As a pilot, he needed imagery to help choose landing zones.

"It was still a very laborious process to get the imagery. So when I was selecting landing zones for helicopters in various countries we'd operate in, there's this bureaucratic chain where you'd have to request imagery. You'd wait hours, days, most times, sometimes even weeks to get the imagery if there were clouds."

So he built SkyFi. Now you can get images in seconds.

Allen Control Systems: Steve Simoni

Steve Simoni and his co-founder, Luke Allen, met in the Navy. Both worked on control systems for Navy nuclear reactors.

Now their Austin company, Allen Control Systems, builds Bullfrog, an autonomous weapon station designed to help shoot down drones.

"We started Allen Control Systems to counteract the Chinese drone threat. Right now, they're making drones at an unprecedented rate, some say even about one per second in Shenzhen, the world's factory. And Luke and I saw this in 2022 and realized that we needed new solutions to counteract this threat."

X-Bow Systems: Jason Hundley

Jason Hundley served as a Marine. He is the founder and CEO of X-Bow Systems, an aerospace company that makes solid rocket motors for defense and space projects. The company operates a facility in Luling.

"Currently, we are focused on the space defense arena. Hypersonic testing. Nuclear modernization, launch vehicles, and the propulsion for the defense industrial base."

The mission continues

This Veterans Day, their service continues in a different way: building technology to help protect America.