{"id":2269,"date":"2026-03-25T04:37:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2269"},"modified":"2026-03-25T04:37:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:37:48","slug":"a-former-thiel-fellows-startup-just-launched-a-drone-it-says-can-replace-police-helicopters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2269","title":{"rendered":"A former Thiel fellow’s startup just launched a drone it says can replace police helicopters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When I speak to Blake Resnick, he\u2019s walking around his drone startup\u2019s newest office space in Seattle\u2014a cavernous 50,000-square-foot facility that, Resnick estimates, won\u2019t be fully set up until later in the year\u2014potentially November. Still, the big (and for now, largely empty) building offers the promise of a fast-growing company intent on conquering its particular industry.<\/p>\n

The industry in question is public safety and the startup is Brinc, which sells drones to police and public agencies across the U.S. The company wants to be the \u201cDJI of the West,\u201d as Resnick has put it\u2014a nod to the Chinese drone manufacturer and a signal that Resnick wants Brinc to become equally synonymous with the tech it sells.<\/p>\n

A former Thiel Fellow<\/a> \u2014 a prestigious program that funds young entrepreneurs to skip or defer college \u2014 Resnick founded Brinc in 2017 and not long afterward garnered interest from then-OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who ultimately served as one of Brinc\u2019s first seed investors<\/a>. Since then, Brinc has enjoyed a number of funding rounds and, as of its last, was valued at nearly half a billion dollars, Resnick tells me.<\/p>\n

Brinc launched its newest product<\/a> on Tuesday, a new public safety drone called Guardian that Resnick says is \u201cthe closest thing to a police helicopter replacement that the drone industry has ever produced.\u201d Brinc claims it is the world\u2019s \u201cmost capable 9-11 response drone\u201d ever.<\/p>\n

Guardian certainly comes with some formidable specs and capabilities. The drone can fly at speeds of up to 60 mph and can endure a 62-minute flight time, its creator says. It also comes equipped with thermal imaging cameras, as well as two additional 4K cameras\u2014all of which have zoom capabilities. \u201cEven from significant altitude, a police department could read, like, license plate details,\u201d Resnick tells me. Additionally, there\u2019s a spotlight, and a loud speaker with more volume than a police siren.<\/p>\n

The drone\u2019s landing station (which Brinc calls a \u201ccharging nest\u201d) offers fully automated battery swapping<\/a>, and can be stocked with critical safety supplies like defibrillators, flotation devices, and Narcan, all without human intervention.<\/p>\n

Guardian also comes with a Starlink panel embedded directly into its body, making it\u2014according to Brinc\u2014the first public safety drone with such a capability. Starlink, SpaceX\u2019s satellite internet service, affords the drone connectivity at any location throughout the world. \u201cStarlink has never been built into a commercially produced quadcopter before, so [it] gives this airframe unlimited range anywhere in the world,\u201d Resnick tells me.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Resnick clearly sees public safety as a big opportunity. \u201cThere are about 20,000 police departments in America, 30,000 fire departments, 80,000 police and fire stations \u2014 and we think the top half of that market in the future will have a 911 response drone in a recharging nest on the roof,\u201d he said. \u201cIt sure looks like we\u2019re looking at a $6 billion to $8 billion market opportunity,\u201d he said, assessing markets in both the U.S. and other countries.<\/p>\n

On that front, Brinc recently partnered<\/a> with the National League of Cities on a program to scale \u201cdrone as first responder\u201d programs in communities throughout the country\u2013a move that will surely help foster relationships between the startup and communities that could ultimately become customers. <\/p>\n

Additionally, Resnick feels that recent geopolitical developments have worked in his company\u2019s favor. Until recently, DJI enjoyed an unofficial monopoly<\/a> on the global drone market\u2014including in the U.S., where safety agencies have long relied<\/a> on the Chinese company\u2019s products. However, the Trump administration recently banned<\/a> foreign-made drone models from entering the country, thus opening up a huge potential market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is this huge need for a DJI of the West, or a leading drone manufacturer for the free world, and ultimately, that\u2019s what we want to be,\u201d Resnick says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I speak to Blake Resnick, he\u2019s walking around his drone startup\u2019s newest office space in Seattle\u2014a cavernous 50,000-square-foot facility that, Resnick estimates, won\u2019t be fully set up until later in the year\u2014potentially November. Still, the big (and for now, largely empty) building offers the promise of a fast-growing company intent on conquering its particular<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45,47,284,41,847,844,427,845,289,846,174,632,46,51,109],"tags":[843,839,840,841,842,621],"class_list":["post-2269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-ai-coding-assistant","category-ai-regulation","category-artificial-intelligence","category-brinc","category-drones","category-openai","category-peter-thiel","category-pro-ai-pacs","category-sam-altman","category-starlink","category-startup","category-startups","category-tech","category-technology","tag-brinc","tag-drones","tag-peter-thiel","tag-sam-altman","tag-starlink","tag-startup"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}