How Dan Oliver Went From Bartender to Spice Baron

Dan Oliver lost his job in manufacturing sales and wanted to try something different. He took a job in the kitchen of a pub and worked his way up to bartender.

But he had always wanted to start a company and he kept looking for an idea. He spent $2,000 researching a disposable toothbrush, but that didn’t go any further.

Then at 5pm on a Monday in January 2015 he brought in some chicken to work. It had his spice mix he’d been using for 15 years. One of the guys tried it “man this is the best chicken I’ve ever had, why aren’t you selling this?”

It hit him like a ton of bricks. Dan-O’s Seasoning was born.

He started researching FDA compliance and packaging on Google and YouTube. He paid a guy $100 at the bar to draw up his logo, a Huck Finn character (original version below).

When he was designing the labels he realized his unique spice mix had almost no sugar and was low in sodium. He removed the sugar entirely. It was healthier than the competition and tasted better.

By 2017 he was ready with his product and attended his first flea market. His goal was to sell $1,000. He sold $4,000.

He could quit bartending!

At another fair an old lady tried the spice on a steak and said “this is damn good.” No “Dan good.”

Dan couldn’t believe he never thought of this before. Dan-Good and Dan-O-Myte were added to the marketing.

The next three years were a grind with Dan in debt and selling at the next trade show or market to make ends meet. There were 4-5 times when all he had was debt, a tank of gas and a market to get to four hours away. He could just give up and not go. But he didn’t quit.

Then Covid hit.

All the shows and markets closed. He needed to pivot. He was listening to Gary Vaynerchuk who said you have to be on TikTok. You should do 2-3 videos a day. So Dan tried.

At that point Dan had 24,000 followers on social media, with half on Facebook. He shot a few videos with mixed results. Then he made a video making crab cakes and all the comments were negative as they said he did it wrong.

But it took off. It had 4-5,000 views and he sold $1,000-1,200 that night. Things were looking up.

Dan partnered with Bill Crosby, who owned a marketing firm, in exchange for marketing services.

He started telling his story of how he started as a bartender. More videos. More views. In March 2020 he had 300 TikTok followers. Nine months later he had 1.1 million. Today… 4.4 million. And for good reason, his videos are great.

When he started in 2017 Dan-O’s Seasoning revenue was $16,000. It grew to $210,00 by 2019 and in 2020 hit $2 million. In 2022 it crossed $20 million, but with all the growth profitably was a challenge and the business only made $8,000 in profit.

Since then the business has continued to grow and become more profitable. They now have six products and are in 13,000 companies across 36-37,000 locations.

Dan’s goal is $100 million in revenue by 2026.

Interested in starting your own food product? Dan shot a few videos covering how to start a food product business:

A great summary video of the journey:

Other interesting tidbits:

They now have a 50 person team
Dan was told to not do manufacturing yourself until you hit $50 million in annual revenue
If you sell two bottles a week in a Walmart location you’re in the top 40% (they sell 10-11 a week)
It’s an eight month process to get a product on retailers shelves
Dan has sold approximately 15% of the equity for $5 million
A co-packer will help you with your FDA requirements
You need a 35% margin, if you don’t, you have a hobby
“keep sprinkling”

Sources:

Necessary Entrepreneur interview

Press release

Dan-O’s feature

Inc. 5000