flâneur

Founders: Red Bull's Billionaire Maniac Founder

pod.wave.co · 12,308 words · saved by 1 readers

I'm reposting one of my favorite founder stories. If you listened to this first time I recommend listening again. If you missed this before, you're about to hear one of the wildest founder stories of all time. A few surprising things I learned from reading about Dietrich Mateschitz, founder of Red Bull: 1. He started the company when he was 41 years old. 2. He was making $500 to $800 million a year and his 49% stake is worth $20 to $30 billion. 3. He still prioritized fitness deep into his 70s and liked driving fast, piloting his planes, and competing in off-road motorcycle races. 4. The company was started with just $500,000 from Mateschitz and $500,000 from his partner. Outside of a small loan from a local bank all other expansion was funded by profits. 5. The company reached profitability in its 3rd year and has been profitable every year since. (33 years and counting) 6. He took no dividends for the first 13 years and reinvested all profits into growth instead 7. He viewed Red Bull as a “marketing conglomerate” and tried to outsource everything else 8. He was intensely private. When an author tried to interview his elderly mother for an unauthorized biography. Mateschi

[00:00] A: Dietrich Mateschitz is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our age. A man who single handedly changed the landscape of the beverage industry by creating not just a new brand, but a whole new category, the energy drink. He is the visionary who brought the world Red Bull in return for his innovation. The world has made him very, very rich. Over the last few years. He was taking anywhere from 500 million to 800 million a year in annual dividends and he had a net worth somewhere between 20 and 30 billion dollars. Mateshitz also runs an efficient enterprise. In 2010, Red Bull…

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