The 23-Year Old With A $300M Drone Company

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GM! It's Tuesday, April 25th - Today, we're covering a 23-year-old dropout who's net worth just broke $100M after his drone company reached $300M, and Fox News just fired Tucker Carlson, one of its leading anchors, which tanked the stock.

- Callum

FEATURE

The 23-Year Old With A $300M Drone Company

In 2020, Blake Resnick dropped out of Northwestern University to accept a Thiel Fellowship $100K grant for his startup Brinc Drones.

Within three years, Resnick grew Brinc Drones to a $300M valuation and has a personal net worth of $100M.

So, What’s the Business?

Following the deadliest U.S. mass shooting in Resnick’s hometown of Las Vegas, he called the lieutenant in charge of the LA SWAT team and asked what tech they had to track down the suspect.

After a six month period of operational tests and revisions to the Brinc Drone, LA Metro SWAT became Resnick’s first client. Now, Brinc Drones serves over 400 public safety agencies across the country.

Brinc sells two products to law enforcement agencies.

Lemur Drone

This drone costs $8,999 and must be accompanied by an additional $2,499 in training fees for up to four officers. No other drone on the market is as durable as the Lemur or comes with as many features for scenarios like hostage rescues, HAZMAT response, and Bomb/EOD operations.

• 2-Way Communication through its loudspeaker function

• Livestream video via mesh network

• Glass breaker attachment

• Creates real time floor plans by collecting 570,000 data points a second

Brinc Ball

The Brinc Ball costs $1,999 and is about the size of a softball. It serves as a throwable phone for rescue teams communicating with individuals in compromised buildings or hostage scenarios. Its protection and data plan costs $49 a month.

The Business Model

Brinc Drones currently sells its products directly to public safety agencies. But with the launch of the Lemur 2, they are transitioning to a service model. With the new model, agencies will enter into a five-year contract that will provide tech assistance and training.

How Do They Win?

Identify a specific problem to solve for a particular consumer base

Traditionally, SWAT teams would need to put their lives in danger to get eyes and ears into dangerous places, but not anymore with Resnick’s drones.

Other drone companies spread themselves out by providing agriculture, industrial, defense and consumer drones, and that’s the reason they haven’t experienced the rapid growth Brinc has.

Brinc Drones was able to blow up to a $300M valuation in just a few years by solely focusing on law enforcement agencies and not having to spend capital and human resources on catering to other consumer bases.

Differentiate yourself from the competition

Brinc is one of the only drone producers that’s compliant with the US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). To be compliant with the NDAA, producers can’t source any components from blacklisted Chinese manufacturers, which is especially difficult for drone companies as the entire global drone supply chain is based out of Shenzhen, China.

The transition wasn’t easy, but it turned into a big advantage for the company. Brinc is now its own vertically integrated supply chain that produces everything in-house with quick turnaround times thanks to Markforged 3D printers.

ON TREND

Carlson Fired And Fox Stock Tanks By $500M

Summary: Tucker Carlson has been fired from Fox News amidst the network's ongoing legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems, despite his termination not being a condition of the recent $787 million settlement.

Key Facts:

• Material implicating Carlson discovered during pre-trial discovery.

• Potential legal damage for Fox from more defamation cases.

• Former Fox News producer, Abby Grossberg, alleges manipulation of her testimony.

• Tapes reportedly show Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies admitting lack of evidence against Dominion.

Why It Matters?

• Class A shares of Fox sank as much as 5.4% Monday, the most since October, wiping out $590M in market cap.