The Red Bull Billionaire

When I learned from a CNN sports report that 200 million people worldwide had watched an Austrian athlete named Felix Baumgartner cross the English Channel in a delta-wing suit with a Red Bull logo, I wanted to know more about a company that would sponsor such an extraordinary stunt.

I soon learned that the energy-drink company Red Bull had their headquarters in a lakeside village five miles from where I grew up. Then I discovered that Forbes had listed Red Bull’s founder Dietrich Mateschitz as the only billionaire in Austria. Unfortunately there was little information about his background or how he built his company. When I searched U.S. business magazines there was not one interview, no cover story, and no business success story. When a search of German-speaking magazines revealed that Mateschitz began his career as a toothpaste salesman and started his company only 15 years ago, I had a hunch this would be a great cover story for Selling Power.

Next, I wrote a letter to Mr. Mateschitz. No response. Then I tried emails and phone calls. No response. On my next trip to Austria to visit my relatives, I drove the few miles to the Red Bull company headquarters, which was modest for a company that does $1.5 billion in sales. (A new corporate headquarters was under construction. It is in the shape of two volcanoes joined together.) After several attempts I made contact with a PR person and was invited to a meeting, which was canceled a few hours later. The next day I got an invitation to visit Mateschitz’s air museum in Salzburg – an architectural jewel that houses a stunning collection of his jets, seaplanes and helicopters. The air museum has a top-rated restaurant and a spectacular bar nestled under the glass roof of the building.

I was told that the company had turned down interview requests by The New York Times, Business Week, Forbes and many more. Why? “Because Mr. Mateschitz prefers to stay in the background and wants his athletes to be in the limelight.”

I thought that there must be a way to tear down this wall of resistance, and I went back to where I had started: concentrated research. After hours and hours of study and countless international phone calls, I was finally able to assemble the key pieces of the Red Bull puzzle and recreate the ingenious sales-and-marketing blueprint that sprung from Dietrich Mateschitz’s mind. Armed with tons of new data from across the world, I went back to the company to verify the information. Doors opened and resistance vanished.

Mateschitz is an intensely private man who doesn’t like to show his cards, yet he’s graciously given his team the nod to work with Selling Power. He’s the master of “marketing buzz,” the king of staging thrilling media events, and the world champion of turning a simple idea into a billion-dollar business. An idea is like a wild horse: You can watch it roam freely, or you can tame it, mount it and ride it into town and enjoy the rousing cheers of an adoring crowd.