If you are a soccer fan in Seattle, you’ve probably tasted Golazo. The energy sports drink has quickly become a fan favorite at soccer matches and events around town. And now the company – created by Cranium founder, former Microsoftie and soccer nut Richard Tait — is looking to tackle new markets with a $3.7 million round of funding from angel investors such as Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, aQuantive co-founder Scott Lipsky and King County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president Mike Sotelo.
International backers include the Moretti family — owner of the Inter Milan football club in Italy — and Placido Arango — the largest restaurant owner in Spain.
To build its brand, Golazo has used a fascinating mix of social media (Facebook fans have topped 17,000 in five weeks) and good-old fashioned grassroots marketing (You’ll likely get a free Golazo on your way to the Sounders-Whitecaps match tonight).
Golazo, which translates in English to “super goal,” is now looking to expand to Oregon next month with plans to move into the populous states of California and Texas later this year. Competing against Red Bull and other energy drinks, Golazo has met with success at various retail chains in Seattle like QFC and Whole Foods. It is also the second best selling beverage on Amazon Fresh.
At some retail outlets, like Whole Foods, Tait says sales of the beverage are 10 times what they expected.
The company has built its success on the back of soccer fans in Seattle, a market which Tait describes as “soccer central USA.”
“People say to me that’s a nice niche, then I realize their are 3.5 billion soccer fans in the world, and we are just on the first steps to becoming their passion brand,” Tait tells GeekWire.
Tait is one of the Seattle area’s most accomplished entrepreneurs, building the board game Cranium into a worldwide sensation. His eight tips for entrepreneurial success — a talk he gave at a Northwest Entrepreneur Network event last fall — was one of the best I’ve seen on starting a new business.
Tait is now putting some of those lessons to work at Golazo, a company he officially launched with Alex Rosenast at the Sounders-Galaxy match last fall.
