Business origin stories that'll make you want to run through a brick wall. Released every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enjoy.
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Whether you’re out getting after it and need something to mix with your vodka, or you’re hitting that time of the afternoon when you’re feeling sluggish—it’s a fact: Red Bull gives you wings (it also makes you feel like you might be having a heart attack). Everyone's familiar with the wings. Everyone's familiar with the drink. But there’s a story behind Red Bull that is worth injecting into your veins...  Allow me to first introduce you to Chaleo Yoovidhya. He lived in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was an antibiotics salesman, and later started his own pharmaceuticals company. In 1976, he developed an energy-boosting beverage. He claimed “divine inspiration” inspired him to make it (funny—a burning bush told us to make Freshly Squeezed). Now, cut to Dietrich Mateschitz. We’ll call him "Dietz". After visiting Thailand, he had a terrible case of jet lag. So, in the airport, he picked up an energy drink called Krating Daeng (our boy Chileo’s creation). It fixed his problem. He reached out to Chileo, and they went into business together 49%-51%. He changed the taste around a little bit, re-named it Red Bull, and took it back to Austria. Dietz was smart. He essentially turned Red Bull into a promotion and events company. They would create their own events (so all of them were sponsored by Red Bull), and advertise the drinks during the events. They are responsible for some of the greatest public shows and attractions ever. Here's a few examples of Red Bull's events: 1) This dude base jumping from the actual stratosphere (he was actually a human meteor. Worth the watch). 2) The Red Bull Crashed Ice Event. 3) The Red Bull Soapbox Race (zero clue what's going on here). The two founders took the company to the moon. Before Chaleo’s death in 2012, he had an estimated net worth of $5 billy. Dietz is still kickin’ it, and also worth a fortune. And Red Bull sells billions of cans per year. **Read more using these resources: this wiki page. **Read more FS Stories here. If you liked reading this article, you might also like The Wedge: a quick-to-read weekly e-mail newsletter with awesome business stories that'll increase your creativity and resourcefulness just by reading them. Learn more and sign up here. Comments are closed.
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