Episode 021: Drones: A World-Changing Technology with Blake Resnick

Charles Werner, your host, welcomes Blake Resnick, CEO of BRINC Drones, to today’s episode, to talk about the background and the history of BRINC Drones and its bond with public safety operations.

Blake Resnick has raised over $27 million from an impressive roster of investors including Index Ventures, Sam Altman, Figma’s Dylan Field, and Scale AI’s Alexandr Wangn to make BRINC Drones a reality. Blake aims to change the way the police and rescue teams operate during emergencies and, in this episode, he shares his journey from his first cold call to working along with the busiest SWAT team.

Key Takeaways:

[1:12]  Blake talks about himself, the man behind BRINC Drones.

[2:47]  What was the catalyst that made Blake become interested in drones?

[5:15]  After the Las Vegas shooting Blake started to explore the use of technology in these kinds of scenarios.

[6:15]  Blake shares examples of how technology has been contributing to saving lives.

[6:35]  How was Blake’s first conversation with someone in public safety and law enforcement to start exploring how technology can be used in that field?

[10:36]  What was Blake’s next step after having the prototype?

[14:03]  Blake shares about the second time he tried his prototypes and how he started to be on-call to work along with the busiest SWAT teams.

[16:29]  Blake talks about the first incident that he went on.

[18:27]  Blake shares the most exciting of his first times working with the SWAT team.

[24:47]  Blake shares how a partnership was developed between the SWAT team and himself.

[25:29]  What happens now about the continuous evolution of BRINC Drones?

[27:40]  Blake talks about how BRINC Drones are progressing.

[29:55]  Blake is making drones to be as easy as possible to use.

[31:35]  BRINC Drones has an extremely close relationship with customers in order to know the improvements that need to take place.

[33:00]  BRINC Drones is a US company on a Chinese dominated market.

[33:49]  It is a drone, it is a camera and it is a phone!

[35:32]  Listening is just as important as seeing when using drones.

[38:26]  Blake talks about his team, which he is greatly proud of.

[40:20]  What is next for BRINC Drones?

[42:12]  Blake talks about DJI M300.

[43:44]  Blake speaks about his contribution in the incident where a Surfside condominium collapsed in Miami.

[51:08]  Blake shares why the mission on the Surfside condominium collapse was special to him.

[51:47]  How was that experience for the pilots?

[53:23]  Blake talks about the idea of building a BRINC response team.

[54:33]  Blake talks to the safety public agencies that are thinking of buying BRINC drones.

[57:10]  BRINC drones are the only ones that have a glass-breaking capability.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Airborne International Response Team
• AIRT is the leading 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supporting Drones For Good and Public Safety UAS
• Become a member of Drone Responders for free.
• AIRT and DRONERESPONDERS 2020 Drones in Public Safety Survey
• Drone Responders Events