The Dan Story
Dan-O’s Seasoning was founded in 2015 by Louisville, KY native, Dan Oliver. In an effort to change the world one table at a time and to inspire fun and healthy cooking with real flavors. Dan-O’s helps you make healthier food choices without ever sacrificing taste. Dan-O’s Seasonings all have a Dantastic® flavor, are made with high quality ingredients and less salt than other brands.
Our mission: Inspire the world to cook up a whole lotta fun!
Dan-O’s Seasoning was founded in 2015 by Louisville, KY native, Dan Oliver. Dan’s passion was based on flavor alone, then he realized when he used premium ingredients, real sea salt and no sugar or additives, that he could inspire the world to make healthy food choices without sacrificing flavor.
Good things are born out of necessity, and the origins of Dan-O’s Seasoning are no different. Back when Dan was in college, he started experimenting with seasoning on chicken thighs and the seeds that would become Dan-O’s Seasoning took root. Dan-O spent years refining the recipe into what it is today while working as a bartender and cook in a local restaurant.
“I always made my special chicken recipe for family and friends and it was always a hit. At the restaurant we would sell out of chicken when I used it, but I never thought of it as a legitimate business idea,” Dan-O said. One day in January 2015, there was a customer sitting at the bar that tried my chicken, he took one bite and said “This is the best chicken I’ve ever had in my life. Why aren’t you selling this?”
“I had a lightbulb moment and said, ‘Sell the seasoning, not the chicken- I’ll call it Dan-O’s’”
When Dan went home that night, all he could think about was how to start his business to create an FDA-approved product. He turned to Google and YouTube to find out as much information as he could. After months of research, in April of 2015 Dan-O’s Seasoning was officially registered as a business…though it would take Dan-O a few more years to perfect his product.
After over a year of modifications, logo designs, and finding the beloved mascot, Little Danny, the first bottle of Dan-O’s was sold in August of 2016.
“It took me all that time to figure out the label design, come up with Little Danny, weigh out and modify the recipe…I probably modified it 200 times to get it perfect,” he explained. “Little Danny came to me in a dream, like Huckleberry Finn walking away from me and I wanted to follow him. I knew the logo needed to be unique and I knew the guy in the kitchen could draw, so I paid him $100 to sketch up Little Danny”
So Dan-O began traveling all over the country with his healthy alternative to traditional seasonings, which is low in salt, sugar-free and the way seasoning should be made. And, most importantly, letting people try Dan-O’s for themselves by sampling at shows - on chicken, of course. Dan-O realized his main source of profit – flea markets, festivals and trade shows – might not be able to happen for a long time. So he joined TikTok and started making cooking videos.
“I was doing anything and everything I could to sell Dan-O’s and help it survive. Things had just started going really well, and then Covid hit,” he said. “That’s when I said, ‘Okay, time for plan B,’ and I started making two or three videos a day, going on live streams, and all of a sudden…it started to click.”
At first, Dan wasn’t getting a ton of engagement. But after a few weeks, one of his videos went viral and his business started picking up traction-doubling and tripling sales basically overnight. Dan-O’s following kept growing and growing and developed a cult-like fanbase we affectionately call Dan-O Fan-O’s.
Since then, Dan made the decision to partner with a local marketing company to help grow his business-while he continued to focus on developing new seasoning flavors made with all natural[1] premium ingredients.
Dan-O’s saw explosive growth over the next several years. In 2022 Dan-O’s was recognized as #1 in Louisville Business Firsts’ annual Fast 50 list and in 2023 Dan-O was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
Today Dan-O’s all-purpose seasoning blends can be found nationwide in over 18,000 retailers! Throughout all the success, Dan-O’s mission to bring more flavor to every table hasn’t wavered. And he does it with 0 calorie, all natural[1] premium ingredients in his iconic seasoning blends.
We love to help our community and most recently donated pallets of seasoning to Dare to Care who uses our seasoning to cook meals in their West End Kitchen. They are distributing the seasoning to some of Dare to Care’s 300 partners as well as used in their innovative frozen meals and kids cafe meals.
- Excludes Cheesoning® which contains enzymes, powdered cellulose (for anti-caking), and calcium propionate (as a preservative).
We Inspire the World To Cook Up a Whole Lotta Fun
Dan-O’s makes it easy for anyone to jump right in and feel confident while cooking. There are no secrets here, just a genuine desire to make cooking a breeze for everyone. With Dan-O’s, there’s no need to measure out multiple spices; our all-purpose seasonings save time and simplify meal prep.
