A former Thiel fellow’s startup just launched a drone it says can replace police helicopters

When I speak to Blake Resnick, he’s walking around his drone startup’s newest office space in Seattle—a cavernous 50,000-square-foot facility that, Resnick estimates, won’t be fully set up until later in the year—potentially November. Still, the big (and for now, largely empty) building offers the promise of a fast-growing company intent on conquering its particular industry.

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 “DJI of the West,” as Resnick has put it—a nod to the Chinese drone manufacturer and a signal that Resnick wants Brinc to become equally synonymous with the tech it sells.

A former Thiel Fellow — a prestigious program that funds young entrepreneurs to skip or defer college — Resnick founded Brinc in 2017 and not long afterward garnered interest from then-OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who ultimately served as one of Brinc’s first seed investors. 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.

Brinc launched its newest product on Tuesday, a new public safety drone called Guardian that Resnick says is “the closest thing to a police helicopter replacement that the drone industry has ever produced.” Brinc claims it is the world’s “most capable 9-11 response drone” ever.

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—all of which have zoom capabilities. “Even from significant altitude, a police department could read, like, license plate details,” Resnick tells me. Additionally, there’s a spotlight, and a loud speaker with more volume than a police siren.

The drone’s landing station (which Brinc calls a “charging nest”) offers fully automated battery swapping, and can be stocked with critical safety supplies like defibrillators, flotation devices, and Narcan, all without human intervention.

Guardian also comes with a Starlink panel embedded directly into its body, making it—according to Brinc—the first public safety drone with such a capability. Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, affords the drone connectivity at any location throughout the world. “Starlink has never been built into a commercially produced quadcopter before, so [it] gives this airframe unlimited range anywhere in the world,” Resnick tells me.

Resnick clearly sees public safety as a big opportunity. “There are about 20,000 police departments in America, 30,000 fire departments, 80,000 police and fire stations — 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,” he said. “It sure looks like we’re looking at a $6 billion to $8 billion market opportunity,” he said, assessing markets in both the U.S. and other countries.

On that front, Brinc recently partnered with the National League of Cities on a program to scale “drone as first responder” programs in communities throughout the country–a move that will surely help foster relationships between the startup and communities that could ultimately become customers.

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

“There is this huge need for a DJI of the West, or a leading drone manufacturer for the free world, and ultimately, that’s what we want to be,” Resnick says.