Ever wonder why you’re paying three bucks for a slim silver can that tastes vaguely like liquid gummy bears and battery acid? Honestly, the story of the founder of Red Bull is weirder than the drink itself. Most people think some corporate lab in Switzerland cooked up the formula to keep office workers awake. Nope. It actually started with a jet-lagged Austrian toothpaste salesman and a Thai duck farmer who sold a syrupy tonic to truck drivers.
Dietrich Mateschitz was 40 years old when he threw his career away for a drink everyone told him was disgusting. He wasn’t a tech wunderkind. He was a guy who spent ten years—a literal decade—getting his marketing degree. He was "leisurely," as he put it. But in 1982, while sitting in a bar in Thailand, he noticed something. The locals were chugging this stuff called Krating Daeng to stay awake during long shifts. He tried it. His jet lag vanished.
That was the "aha" moment that changed everything.
The Secret Partnership That Built an Empire
The founder of Red Bull isn't just one person. That's the first thing people get wrong. While Mateschitz is the face we know, the engine was Chaleo Yoovidhya. Chaleo was the one who invented Krating Daeng (which literally means "Red Gaur," a type of wild bull). He was already a self-made millionaire in Thailand, but he wasn't looking for global fame.
💡 You might also like: Stock Market Today Live: Why Everyone Is Freaking Out About Banks and Tech Right Now
When Mateschitz approached him, they made a deal that would make most modern VCs faint. They each put up $500,000 of their own savings. No massive Series A. No board of directors breathing down their necks. They split the company 49/49, with the remaining 2% going to Chaleo's son, Chalerm.
Why the "Expert" Advice Was Dead Wrong
Before the big launch in 1987, Mateschitz hired a professional market research firm to test the product. The results were a total disaster. People hated the taste. They hated the smell. They hated the concept.
One tester famously said, "I will never drink this again."
Most CEOs would have folded. Mateschitz didn't care. He knew he wasn't selling a beverage; he was selling a feeling. He famously said, "There is no market for Red Bull. We will create it." He spent three years tweaking the recipe—adding bubbles and making it less sweet—to fit Western palates. He also insisted on the slim can. At the time, every soda came in a fat 12-ounce can. Red Bull looked different because it was different.
How the Founder of Red Bull Created "Extreme" Marketing
If you've ever seen a guy jump from the edge of space or a Formula 1 car fly through a city street, you’ve seen Mateschitz's brain at work. He hated traditional ads. He thought they were boring and, frankly, a waste of money.
Instead of buying billboards, he used "guerrilla" tactics. He gave free cans to cool college kids. He told them to drive around in Minis with giant cans on the roof. He even allegedly paid people to leave empty cans in trendy nightclub trash cans so it looked like everyone was drinking it. It was social proof before social media existed.
The Sports Obsession
The founder of Red Bull was a bit of a daredevil himself. He loved flying and fast cars. This wasn't just corporate synergy; it was his personality bleeding into the brand.
- Formula 1: He bought the Jaguar team for $1 in 2004 because Ford wanted out. Everyone laughed. Then they started winning championships.
- Felix Baumgartner: The Stratos jump in 2012 cost millions. It was a massive gamble. If it failed, it was a PR nightmare. Instead, 8 million people watched a man fall from the sky with a Red Bull logo on his chest.
- Football (Soccer): He bought teams in Salzburg, Leipzig, and New York. He didn't just sponsor them; he rebuilt them from the ground up to play "Red Bull style"—fast, aggressive, and relentless.
He viewed Red Bull as a media company that just happened to sell drinks. By owning the events and the teams, he controlled the footage. He didn't have to pay for "placements" because he owned the whole show.
The Man Behind the Mystery
For a guy who owned a private island in Fiji and a fleet of vintage planes, Dietrich Mateschitz was surprisingly quiet. He lived in Salzburg. He wore jeans and casual shirts. He almost never gave interviews.
He had this weird, old-school loyalty. He didn't believe in long, complicated contracts. A handshake was usually enough for him. He once bought an Austrian magazine called Seitenblicke—not because he wanted to be a publisher, but because they kept writing gossip about him and he wanted them to stop. That’s billionaire energy for you.
What happened when he died?
Mateschitz passed away in 2022 at 78. He left his 49% stake to his son, Mark. Today, the Yoovidhya family in Thailand is worth north of $30 billion, and the Red Bull machine hasn't slowed down. They sold over 12 billion cans in 2023. That’s enough to give a caffeine buzz to every single person on Earth.
Why the Red Bull Model Still Matters
The founder of Red Bull proved that you don't need a "perfect" product to win. You need a perfect brand.
He didn't compete with Coke or Pepsi on price. In fact, he made Red Bull more expensive on purpose. He wanted it to be a "premium" product. If it’s expensive, it must work, right? It’s a psychological trick that’s now a standard in the luxury and supplement worlds.
Takeaways from the Mateschitz Playbook:
- Ignore the Focus Groups: If you’re doing something truly new, people won't have a category for it. They’ll usually hate it at first.
- Scarcity and Buzz: Before Red Bull was legal in certain countries, people would smuggle it across the border. That "forbidden fruit" vibe made it legendary.
- Own the Content: Don't just buy an ad during the game. Own the team. Own the stadium. Own the cameras.
- Patience is a Power: He spent three years just getting the recipe and the can right. He didn't rush to market.
If you’re looking to apply the Red Bull philosophy to your own life or business, start by looking for "the gap." Mateschitz didn't look for a better soda; he looked for a category that didn't exist yet. He found it in a small brown bottle in a Bangkok pharmacy.
Next time you're stuck on a problem, stop looking at what your competitors are doing. Go find your own version of a Thai energy tonic. Experiment. Trust your gut over the "experts." And maybe, just maybe, don't be afraid to take ten years to finish your degree if you're busy learning how the world actually works.