Counter-Drone Robotics, Defense Capital, and Building 9 Mothers | Russell Smith

Russell Smith is the co-founder and CEO of 9 Mothers, a startup building autonomous systems for military use.

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Russell Smith is the co-founder and CEO of 9 Mothers, an Austin-based defense technology company building counter-drone systems.

After previously building Rainforest QA and going through Y Combinator, Russell moved from enterprise software into defense hardware as the war in Ukraine demonstrated the growing threat posed by small, inexpensive drones.

Russell explains the thinking behind 9 Mothers’ approach: counter-UAS systems that are small, light, inexpensive, and deployable across a much larger number of vehicles and positions.

The conversation covers the company’s acoustic sensing work, its shotgun-based counter-drone system, development of a belt-fed shotgun, and the challenges of building reliable robotic weapon systems.

The discussion also gets into a problem facing the new generation of defense founders: capital. Russell and Steve discuss why defense startups can appear competitive to venture investors even when the Department of Defense is willing to buy from multiple suppliers, why robotics companies cannot simply copy products overnight, and how much growth capital has already been concentrated in a relatively small group of defense companies.

They also examine what battlefield evidence says about counter-UAS technology. Russell and Steve discuss electronic warfare, interceptors, kinetic systems, drone swarms, and why claimed counter-drone capabilities have to be judged against what is actually happening in Ukraine and other active conflicts.

The episode closes with a broader discussion of defense company building—from founder-led marketing and acquisitions to Austin’s growing defense ecosystem, C2 integration, and why Russell believes much of the economic value in defense ultimately remains with the physical systems the government buys rather than the software connecting them.