Danny O’Neill, founder of Kansas City’s iconic The Roasterie Coffee Company, is one of a kind. One of ten children born and raised in tiny Denison, Iowa, Danny was always looking for a way to make a mark. Little did he know that a semester as a high school exchange student in Costa Rica picking coffee beans would forever change his life.

He eventually saved up $17,000 dollars, bought a coffee roaster, lined his basement with corrugated tin, blue tarps and fluorescent lighting and went to work air roasting coffee. His first sale was a ten pound bag for a coffee cart at Children’s Mercy Hospital, and the rest is history.

It’s an incredible story about fear, perseverance, and hard work. It wasn’t easy becoming “The Bean Baron”!