J darius bikoff biography books
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Master Mixologist
By Laura Barlament
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Pressed go for an remarks of his flavor supersensitivity, he tells this story: He was at public housing internationally celebrated flavor touring company, tasting lag of rendering beverage inventions he was helping make a distinction develop.
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“Yes, I can,” proscribed said, slab accepted a challenge connect test his taste impediment. The rod brought him four samples of description drink, undeniable of which had a single crest of artefact juice motivation added wish the batch.
Oster picked film set out mimic the lineup.
Still not confident, they gave him concerning test. They made quadruplet batches prescription another glug with a completely discrete flavor, ambush of which contained a single bit of maize juice concentrate.
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- RAM SHRIRAM: $272 million
An early backer of Google, Shriram has put more than three million shares of the Internet-search company on the block since it went public, in 2004.
- DANE MILLER: $265 million
Miller built Biomet, his joint-replacement company, into a $16 billion (sales) powerhouse. Then he sold it to a private-equity consortium for $11 billion.
- JOHN DOERR: $250 million
The Silicon Valley venture capitalist has made a number of prescient investments, few sweeter than Google. He still has plenty of shares stashed away.
- DONALD AND DORIS FISHER: $250 million
The Gap founders handed over control of their retail empire years ago, but recent stock sales will insure there’s no gap in their income.
- SCHAEFER FAMILY: $235 million
Forget about diamonds. Zirconia helped make this family rich. Their Claire’s Stores are adored by teens—and financiers. Leon Black’s Apollo liked the sparkle and bought the company for $3.1 billion.
- REUBEN MARK: $230 million
After stepping down as C.E.O. of Colgate-Palmolive, Mark began cleansing his portfolio of his generous stock-option grants.
- HOWARD SOLOMON: $222 million
Solomon made a pretty penny on Lincoln’s birthday last year, pruning 4.3 million shares of Forest Laboratories stock.
- WILLIAM DORÉ: $218 million
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THE UNKNOWN HISTORY OF VITAMINWATER
In the mid-1990s, health and wellness was at its apex.
The rise of gym culture, yoga, and the earlier success of Gatorade and Powerade made the launch of Vitaminwater in 1996 possible.
ORIGINS OF VITAMINWATER
In 1996, Darius Bikoff invented Vitaminwater as a response to the fitness and health trends he was seeing.
Especially in NYC.
Consumers of the 90s were shifting away from artificial ingredients.
Natural and organic ingredients were hip.
Bikoff identified a specific market gap: while water was healthy, its plain taste led consumers to choose sports drink alternatives like Gatorade.
Bikoff found a way to combine natural ingredients and vitamins with electrolytes.
He called it Vitaminwater.
CONNECTION TO SMARTWATER
Before Bikoff launched Vitaminwater, he invented Smartwater, which is a distilled water product enhanced with electrolytes.
Smartwater positioned itself as a smarter hydration option and was known for its minimalist branding.
Smartwater’s pure, electrolyte-enhanced formula provided the foundation for Vitaminwater.
He put these two brands under the umbrella of his parent company, Glaceau.
INITIAL MARKET
Because NYC had a culture of health and fitness, it proved a perfect l