Russ Weiner
Delray Beach, Florida
Bachelor of Arts/Science, San Diego State University
United States
8
energy drinks, Self Made
$4,100,000,000
478
#478 Billionaires 2019
#153 Forbes 400 2018
Russ Weiner founded energy drink company Rockstar in 2001, striking gold by marketing an energy drink in a tall-boy can.Weiner started Yachak Organic in late 2017 as a natural alternative to Rockstar. Profits will go to protect endangered species and the environment. The son of right-wing talk-radio star Michael Savage, Weiner ran for California State Assembly in 1998.Though he lost the race, Weiner caught the eye of his father's friend, Skyy Vodka founder Maurice Kanbar, who quickly hired him.When Kanbar rejected Weiner's idea for an energy drink, Weiner quit and launched Rockstar using a $50,000 mortgage on his Sausalito, Calif. condo.
When the first Rockstar cans hit stores and bars in 2001, Weiner drove around San Francisco in an old limo on which he'd painted the Rockstar logo to promote it.Weiner once owned a 161-foot yacht named 'Rockstar' that was damaged by a Miami drawbridge.
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