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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 429 Luis Carlos Sarmiento|# 431 Andrei Skoch ➡

# 430 Don Vultaggio 

$6.60B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 6/25/2024

# 430 Don Vultaggio 

$6.60B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 6/25/2024
OccupationFounder, Chair, and President, Arizona Beverages USA
Source of WealthBeverages
Age72
ResidencePort Washington, New York
Marital StatusMarried
Children2
EducationHigh School Graduate, High School
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$2.93B
Don Vultaggio
Don Vultaggio
United States
Net worth: $6.60B

Self-Made Score 

Wealth History

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Biography

Early Life

Domenick "Don" Vultaggio was born in 1951 or 1952 in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York.
His father worked as the manager of an A&P supermarket in Brooklyn.
Vultaggio grew up in a working-class neighborhood.

Career Beginnings

In the 1970s, Vultaggio started selling beer and soda from the back of a van in Brooklyn's toughest neighborhoods.
He gained initial entrepreneurial experience navigating challenging markets others avoided.
These early experiences laid the foundation for his future business ventures.

Arizona Beverage Company

Founded in 1992 by John Ferolito and Don Vultaggio in Brooklyn, New York.
Arizona gained prominence with its 'Big Can' drinks holding 22 US fl oz (650 mL), priced around $0.99.
The 'Arnold Palmer blend' of iced tea and lemonade became a flagship product for Arizona.
Diversified into fruit snacks, merchandising, and drink mixes.
Maintained a suggested retail price of $0.99 per can despite rising costs.

Legal Battle and Buyout

Vultaggio engaged in a prolonged and bitter legal battle with his former partner, John Ferolito.
The dispute concluded in 2015 with Vultaggio buying out Ferolito for about $1 billion.
The settlement marked a significant turning point for Vultaggio and Arizona Beverage Company.
Despite the resolution, the fallout from the legal battle may have had lasting effects on the company's operations and culture.
The buyout solidified Vultaggio's control over the company's direction and future.

Personal Life

Vultaggio is married to Ilene, an artist.
They have two sons, Wesley and Spencer.
Both sons hold executive positions within Arizona Beverage Company.
The family resides in Port Washington, New York.
In 2004, they purchased a two-acre private peninsula in Sands Point, Long Island, where they built a 30-room mansion completed in 2007.

How long would it take you to become as rich as Don Vultaggio?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.13% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Don Vultaggio's net worth of $6.60B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 48.35% compared to 16.28% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

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Don Vultaggio is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Don Vultaggio, Beverages is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Edited by: Lee Bailey