Shawn Ryan Show
#205 Dino Mavrookas - Fmr. Navy SEAL (DEVGRU) / CEO of Saronic Technologies
Mon, 02 Jun 2025
Dino Mavrookas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Saronic Technologies, a defense tech company pioneering AI-powered autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) to strengthen U.S. and allied naval capabilities. A former U.S. Navy SEAL with 11 years of service and eight combat tours, Mavrookas enlisted after 9/11 and gained firsthand insight into the importance of technological superiority in complex operational environments. He founded Saronic in 2022, and under his leadership, the company has raised over $850 million and reached a $4 billion valuation by early 2025—developing scalable, mission-driven ASVs for modern maritime defense. After his military service, he earned a BASC in Computer Engineering from Rutgers and an MBA from The Wharton School. He then transitioned to private equity, serving as a Senior Associate at Vista Equity Partners and Vice President at H.I.G. Capital, focusing on technology investments. A 2015 Pat Tillman Scholar, Mavrookas also serves on the board of the Navy SEAL Foundation and advocates for expanding opportunities for veterans in elite academic and professional programs. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://www.roka.com - USE CODE SRS https://uscca.com/srs https://www.aura.com/srs https://www.betterhelp.com/srs This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/srs and get on your way to being your best self. https://www.helixsleep.com/srs https://www.blackbuffalo.com https://www.meetfabric.com/shawn https://www.shawnlikesgold.com https://www.hillsdale.edu/srs https://www.paladinpower.com/srs https://www.patriotmobile.com/srs https://trueclassic.com/srs Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at trueclassic.com/srs! #trueclassicpod Dino Mavrookas Links - LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dino-mavrookas Saronic Technologies - https://www.saronic.com Navy SEAL Foundation - https://www.navysealfoundation.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 3: What challenges does Saronic Technologies face in defense tech?
How am I better than this person that's been investing for 15 years? How do I get better than them? How do I learn from them? And now it's same thing in the business world. I look at other CEOs, other business leaders, work with Joe Lonzo a lot, who I know we talk about. How do I get to be that good, right?
How do I have that level of insight across that many different things that can drive this company into a truly, truly generational company? When did you figure that out?
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Oh, man. Sometime after business school and before Saronic, I don't know if I could put a date on it. It wasn't immediate, right? Because in business school, you are like every other vet going to a recruiter trying to find a job. You are kind of competing in that vets network community, and it feels like you're part of it. It was just...
Getting out of that, going into private equity, but then also not doing that for a year or two. I was there for five years. Really was building a career there. And so somewhere along that way, I got over the imposter syndrome of, and you talk about I don't really belong here. These people are, they're brilliant.
There were folks that could sit there and tell you every single number about every single company they've ever worked on in the last decade. Wow. And I'm like trying to remember what the revenue was on the company, the meeting we last left 45 minutes ago. And I'm like, I better think.
And so it was getting into this process and building the habits and building the skill sets to be very, very good at it.
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Chapter 8: How can the U.S. regain its naval dominance?
My grandfather opened a diner, kind of built that business, built other businesses, saved money, moved the family out into the suburbs, opened a restaurant there. And that's where I grew up. And I kind of grew up in the restaurant business. That was the center of the family. I started working there when I was 12 years old, washing dishes and bussing tables.
You know, one, it taught me the value of a dollar. It taught me hard work and commitment. But it also, if I'm being honest, it kept me out of trouble, right? It was nights, weekends, holidays, everything. I was just working at the restaurant. And after work, we'd go back to grandma's house. And that was, whether it was Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner,
You know, we'd all be working as a family, and then we'd all go back to my grandma's house and celebrate the holiday. And that was a big part of my life growing up. So you stayed out of trouble? For the most part. I had work, and yeah, I never really got in trouble. I mean, I never got in legal trouble. My parents thought I was a pain. If you talk to some adults, and...
So I actually met my wife when I was 13 years old.
Oh, man, that's great.
At a Greek Orthodox church. And Greek Orthodox church in New Jersey is sort of like a high school. Basketball teams and volleyball teams and everything else. So when you say trouble, it's all relative, right? Yeah. I like to tell this really funny version of the story where my wife had a huge crush on me the moment she saw me.
But she's not here to defend herself, and I will get in way, way too much trouble if I tell that version here. So I'll kind of give the truth. But yeah, so I had this huge crush on her. So her parents knew me when I was 13 years old. They thought I was the biggest pain in the ass, and I was always talking back to grownups.
And so when we ended up going on our first date, I think it was 10 years later. 10 years later? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You didn't make the move for a decade? It took me a while, man. It took me a while. She was way too cool for me. We were friends. I was stuck in the friend zone for a while. We went to the same college. Went to school at Rutgers.
And then after the SEAL teams, we ended up reconnecting. We started dating. And as you can imagine, it was hard to build a relationship. It was like, hey, great reconnecting. I love this date. And yeah, I have to go to Iraq for six months. She's like, what? Oh, so you made the move while you were in the SEAL teams. While I was in the SEAL teams, yeah. And then I like to tease her about it.
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