Uncommon Thinkers: Blake Resnick finds a larger purpose in tech, making drones for public safety

Blake Resnick at Brinc HQ in Seattle, where the company designs and manufactures its drones. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)

This article originally appeared in GeekWire.

Editor’s Note: This is part of a series profiling “Uncommon Thinkers”: inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs transforming industries and driving positive change. All six will be recognized at the GeekWire Gala on Dec. 6. Uncommon Thinkers is presented in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners. Read other profiles here.

BY TODD BISHOP

Don’t get your hopes up that Sam Altman will actually wire the money.

That’s what Blake Resnick’s dad told him after the call. This was long before the OpenAI CEO became known beyond Silicon Valley. Dr. Michael Resnick didn’t know exactly who Altman was. So when his son said some investor had promised him enough capital to launch his drone startup, it seemed too crazy to be true.

“But sure enough, the next day it showed up, and he was off to the races,” Michael Resnick said.

That was one of the moments that helped Blake Resnick’s dad fully appreciate his son’s uncommon way of thinking.

This was the kid who would skip classes to talk about books with the school’s principal.

This was the teenager who went to college when everybody else was in high school, only to drop out of Northwestern University’s mechanical engineering program to launch a startup.

This was the untested startup founder who somehow got one of the tech industry’s most notable angel investors to give him millions of dollars in less than 30 minutes.

Now 23 years old, Blake Resnick is the founder and CEO of Seattle-based Brinc. The company makes unmanned aerial vehicles and a throwable communications ball for police and other first responders.

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