A 23-year-old college dropout, Blake Resnick is the founder and CEO of drone start-up Brinc Drones. The company was founded in 2019 and on April 10th, 2023, hit an estimated worth of $300m.

The young entrepreneur owns half the company, which is now one of the largest drone manufacturers in the US and employs over 100 people.

Resnick has gained backing from OpenAI founder Sam Altman, former defence secretary Patrick Shanahan, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and recently won a Peter Thiel-backed fellowship.

According to a GlobalData, the global drone market will reach $89.6bn by 2030, up from $13.7bn in 2021.

Military drones, in particular, have seen increased deployment. Brinc’s, Lemur drone, conducted search-and-rescue missions in collapsed buildings across Ukraine last year in June 2022.