Currently @9mothers building AI weapon systems. YC P26. LP/VP @pioneer_fund. LP @ others. Ex @recursecenter A1'22, @rainforestqa, @ycombinator S12, P26.
Austin, TX
Joined March 2012
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Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
Today we're launching Roma.
Roma is the to-do list that does itself. The original productivity tool reinvented.
Months of hard work, and a lot of honest feedback from beta users who kept pushing us to get it right.
roma.app/
Roma is available today. Can't wait to hear what you think.
@ycombinator
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
Dude had maybe two seconds once that FPV popped up and still managed to dump rounds and drop it.
These things come in fast and low that you're basically reacting on pure instinct or you're not reacting at all.
Wild shot.
Writer: Daniyal
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
IndyCars hitting 180 MPH down Pennsylvania Avenue is a good reason to leave the office.
The Forterra team spent the weekend at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix with our friends at @SecondFront. History on the Mall, and great company to watch it with.
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
The U.S. Army tested a self-driving truck that can clear obstacles and shoot down attack drones at the same time, no soldier inside.
Read more: defence-blog.com/u-s-army-te…
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
The breacher can now defend itself. Forterra's autonomous mission systems were put to the test at Fort Bragg, with a Ford F-250 carrying a @9Mothers counter-drone turret. The truck clears the lane and kills the drone hunting it, with no soldier exposed. @Defence_blog has the story.
The U.S. Army tested a self-driving truck that can clear obstacles and shoot down attack drones at the same time, no soldier inside.
Read more: defence-blog.com/u-s-army-te…
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
Sandhills 2.0 - now with cUAS
The U.S. Army tested a semi-autonomous Ford F-250 equipped with the Edda counter-drone turret during Project Sandhills 2.0 at Fort Bragg on August 18.
The vehicle combines Forterra’s AutoDrive autonomy system with the Edda turret from 9 Mothers. The system is intended to provide point defense for autonomous breaching vehicles against small drones.
The 23 kg (50 lb) Edda turret uses acoustic sensors to detect drones and an optical tracking system to engage them with a shotgun effector. It is designed to counter fast-moving drones measuring around 7 inches at ranges of 10–100 meters (33–328 ft).
During the test, an Edda turret reportedly engaged a Bumblebee V2 small UAS, demonstrating the system as part of the integrated autonomous breaching package.
The Sandhills 2.0 program combines autonomous mobility with obstacle-clearing and counter-UAS capabilities, aiming to reduce soldiers’ exposure during breaching operations.
#USArmy #CounterUAS #DroneDefense #UGV #AutonomousVehicle #FordF250 #Forterra #Edda #FPV #MilitaryTechnology #DefenseTechnology
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
The U.S. Army tested a semi-autonomous Ford F-250 equipped with the Edda counter-drone turret during Project Sandhills 2.0 at Fort Bragg on August 18.
The vehicle combines Forterra’s AutoDrive autonomy system with the Edda turret from 9 Mothers. The system is intended to provide point defense for autonomous breaching vehicles against small drones.
The 23 kg (50 lb) Edda turret uses acoustic sensors to detect drones and an optical tracking system to engage them with a shotgun effector. It is designed to counter fast-moving drones measuring around 7 inches at ranges of 10–100 meters (33–328 ft).
During the test, an Edda turret reportedly engaged a Bumblebee V2 small UAS, demonstrating the system as part of the integrated autonomous breaching package.
The Sandhills 2.0 program combines autonomous mobility with obstacle-clearing and counter-UAS capabilities, aiming to reduce soldiers’ exposure during breaching operations.
#USArmy #CounterUAS #DroneDefense #UGV #AutonomousVehicle #FordF250 #Forterra #Edda #FPV #MilitaryTechnology #DefenseTechnology
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
Apple is delivering on its promise to bring advanced manufacturing back to America.
$600 billion invested in America. Mac mini made in Texas. American workers building the future.
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
Are they going to send this to China too?
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
Today, many were shocked by yet another video of the drone “safari” Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson. A Russian drone deliberately hunted down a man selling vegetables and detonated right next to him. The Russians even admitted to the crime, showing zero regret and openly boasting about tormenting people. The man was wounded in the blast. Every single day, ordinary people in Kherson face these Russian "safaris."
The world must see this. It must see every piece of evidence that Russia has gone mad and that its soldiers take pleasure in killing and abusing civilians. Without pressure on Russia, the dismantling of its capacity for aggression, and real security guarantees, it is simply impossible to imagine the world being able to coexist with this evil. We must remain resolute in defending life. We must act and support life in ways that force Russia to seriously think about peace rather than expanding the range of its drones.
This is not just about Ukraine. Russia’s campaign against human life must be stopped here in Ukraine before it spreads further. Finland and Kazakhstan, the Baltic states and Poland, the countries of the South Caucasus, Romania, and Moldova—all should work together to ensure real security guarantees and bring Russia’s war to an end. Peace is needed, which requires cooperation among everyone in the world who truly values peace. Thank you to everyone standing with Ukraine!
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
Petraeus: The death zone in Ukraine extends 35 kilometers on either side of the front lines — defined by drone battery life. Tanks can't survive. Armored vehicles can't survive. Nothing can.
Neither side even drives vehicles anymore. Russians keep trying and keep proving it.
Petraeus: No trenches — drones fly through. Soldiers in survivability positions hundreds of meters apart, not mutually supporting. Resupplied by ground robots.
Commanders can't visit the front line. Soldiers stay 60+ days. In urban areas, some couldn't be extracted for months.
Petraeus: Russian advances mean individual soldiers running forward trying to dig in. Drone units pick them up immediately, cycle surveillance drones, then FPV attack drones arrive.
You see them hitting around the soldier in the woods until one connects. It doesn't end well.
Petraeus: Ukraine is about to isolate Crimea. Gasoline so short they won't sell it to civilians. Tourists who came for beaches are trying to get home any way they can.
Kerch Bridge rail no longer works. Ferries knocked out. Land bridges destroyed. Pontoon bridges now targeted.
Petraeus: Ukraine took down Russia's air defenses steadily. Russia pulls them to Moscow — vulnerabilities open everywhere else. Moscow refinery hit three nights running, out at least six months.
They're going after fuel storage, refineries, gas lines from Siberia to the west.
Petraeus: Real prospect now that Putin might need a cessation of hostilities himself. Oil sanctions reimposed, national welfare fund running out of money.
Crimea isolated, front lines cut off, economy crushed — all of this could force Putin to recognize he should end this war.
Source: text of Tymofiy Milovanov
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
We're excited to be working on this with @ForterraDrive - "US Army to experiment with C-UAS for autonomous breaching vehicles" - janes.com/defence-intelligen…
via @JanesINTEL
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
@9Mothers & @albacoreinc @ Pennsylvania Defense & Innovation Summit🇺🇸
@DVaisbort John Huddleston @rhs
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
One of the weird constants about YC is that the disses are always the same. Investors always claim valuations have become impossibly high. Competitors always claim we've jumped the shark because the batch sizes are now too big. Historically both have always been mistaken.
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
At least 1,200 people died of heatstroke in France last Wednesday, mostly elderly people indoors.
Even crazier, about 70,000 Europeans die from the same every year, akin to a bi-weekly 9/11. Eurobros, please vote for leaders who will let you open your windows and install A/C!
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
Bring your whole team and dozens of AI coding agents into the same chat threads, then let @linzumi_ai keep the fleet coordinated and unblocked.
And for a limited time, try state of the art open-weights intelligence free: GLM 5.2 at high speed, via their @wafer_ai partnership. → linzumi.com
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
It’s Demo Day. Joined by:
- @garrytan (YC)
- @harjtaggar (YC)
- @sdianahu (YC)
- @h_ayes (Meta)
- @lukeburgis (Cluny)
- @agansca (Knotch)
- @startupandrew (Tasklet)
- @cybermetheus (Eden)
- @hpafrisk (Tenet)
- @rhs (9 Mothers)
- @ET_adialante (Adialante)
- @akshaytree (Madrone)
YC Demo Day Lightning Round, New Snap AR Glasses, SpaceX Rips teapawt.org/i/broadcasts/1yKAPPoNX…
Russell Smith 🤙 retweeted
How to be a good investor:
Don't play games.
Be transparent.
Prepare before the meeting.
Make your decision quickly.
Give a clear yes/no.
Don't be an asshole.
Realize that there is a good chance you are wrong.
Understand that the founders are dedicating years of their life to this.
Huge bonus points if you are a fellow founder who understands what it's like to build a startup.
I was once pitching in a board room at a top 3 VC firm for a $15M Series A.
12 people in the meeting. One of the GPs fully fell asleep. Out cold for 30+ minutes. Nobody acknowledged it. Everyone just kept going.
I kept presenting my Series A slides to an unconscious man in a Herman Miller chair and somehow that was considered normal. That's venture capital.
You might fly across the country to perform for people who may or may not be conscious.
It's a dance.
And sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow and sometimes your partner is unconscious.
If you're raising right now, just know: every founder has a story like this. The process is weird. The power dynamic is weird. You're not crazy for thinking it's weird.
No one talks about it because they want to continue raising. But I'm happy to stick my neck out there.
It is weird.