FoundersDavid SenraAll episodes
Red Bull's Billionaire Maniac Founder
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:
- He started the company when he was 41 years old.
- He was making $500 to $800 million a year and his 49% stake is worth $20 to $30 billion.
- He still prioritized fitness deep into his 70s and liked driving fast, piloting his planes, and competing in off-road motorcycle races.
- 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.
- The company reached profitability in its 3rd year and has been profitable every year since. (33 years and counting)
- He took no dividends for the first 13 years and reinvested all profits into growth instead
- He viewed Red Bull as a “marketing conglomerate” and tried to outsource everything else
- He was intensely private. When an author tried to interview his elderly mother for an unauthorized biography. Mateschitz threatened to have his knee caps broken. He said it would only cost $500 to hire a Russian to do the job.
- There are no biographies written in English about Mateschitz.
- He believed a handshake agreement among gentlemen was sufficient and regularly did business with trusted partners with no written contract.
- He bought a popular Austrian magazine just so he wouldn’t appear in it.
- He was universally described by former employees as a gentleman, charismatic, and fiercely loyal.
- He didn’t like spending time socializing. He said:
“I don't believe in 50 friends. I believe in a smaller number. Nor do I care about society events. It's the most senseless use of time. When I do go out, from time to time, it's just to convince myself again that I'm not missing a lot."
- He owned a private island in Fiji and said he was attracted to having his own independent state.
His state would have the shortest set of laws in the world:
“The rules are simple: Nobody tells you what you have to do — only what you don’t have to do.”
- When he was asked if he was going to retire he said “I’m having more fun than ever.”
- He refused to sell Red Bull or take it public and worked on it until he died.
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