Dane Boersma had never heard of an espresso.
At the time, he was 38 years old, had three kids, and had just made the impossible decision to walk away from everything his family had built. He and his younger brother, Travis, were third-generation dairy farmers in Grants Pass, Oregon. They came from the kind of family where the land and the cattle herd are just supposed to keep passing down, from one generation to the next, no questions asked. But new state mandates at the time were going to require $150,000 in upgrades that they just couldn’t afford. They were barely able to pay their bills as it was. So Dane made that difficult decision and sold the herd.
Then, he called younger brother Travis, who was 21 and, in his own words, “footloose and fancy-free.” Travis had an idea: an espresso cart. Dane’s response: “What’s an espresso?”
They went and found out. At the time, there was a local coffee drive-thru called Western Espresso, run by a barefoot woman who knew every single one of her customers by name. Dane took one sip of her espresso, and that was it. He was all in. They found themselves a mentor in Eugene, Oregon, named Paul Leighton, who taught them all about how to pull shots and steam milk. They tested every chocolate syrup they could get their hands on and eventually figured out that the secret to a great mocha wasn’t chocolate syrup at all; it was regular, plain chocolate milk from a local store. They spent weeks just handing out free samples to strangers.
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Their first physical location was a pushcart on 6th Street in Grants Pass, beside an old billboard that had a power outlet they could use. The lease was $150 a month. On opening day, Dane was so nervous he almost backed out entirely. Travis put on Led Zeppelin. The cart earned about $65 that day.
They called their business Dutch Bros.
The Brother Who Didn’t Make It to Wall Street
Those early days were exactly as shaky as $65 sounds. On their very first day, a Grocery Outlet store manager kicked them out of his parking lot. Travis walked right into the guy’s office and ended up talking him into a 30-day trial. When Grocery Outlet’s corporate executives showed up during that time frame, Travis handed every single one of them free drinks. The executives turned around and praised the store manager for having the cart on property. Dutch Bros got to stay.
That was the whole playbook: show up, be relentless, make it work.
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To be clear, Dane wasn’t figuring this out from scratch. An entrepreneur at heart, he’d owned a Dairy Queen franchise at 22. He had already learned everything about speed, simplicity, and how to build a menu. Dutch Bros wasn’t a desperate Hail Mary. It was Dane taking everything he’d already learned and doing it better.
Tragically, in 2005, Dane was diagnosed with ALS — Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was only 51. Travis took over the day-to-day. Dane Boersma died on October 15, 2009, at 55, survived by his wife Sandy and their three children. When he passed, Dutch Bros had more than 150 locations across seven states.
Travis never stopped.
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From the very beginning, Dutch Bros had a rule nobody else in the coffee business had: you couldn’t buy a franchise unless you’d already worked for the company. No outside investors writing checks and opening locations. Only people who’d actually grown up inside the culture. In 2008, Travis made the decision to go even a step further and stopped selling franchises to outsiders completely. He felt too many people were getting in who just didn’t get what the company was actually about. By 2017, Dutch Bros stopped selling new franchises altogether. The decision was made that the only way Dutch Bros would grow was from within.
Every year, Travis holds “Drink One for Dane” — one day where all proceeds go to the Muscular Dystrophy Association in his brother’s memory. Customers have donated more than $10 million in total. It still happens every year.
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On September 15, 2021, Travis Boersma walked onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and rang the opening bell. He was wearing a Rage Against the Machine T-shirt and a backwards baseball cap. That evening, he was there for the closing bell too. Dutch Bros went public at a $3.3 billion valuation — one of the largest IPOs Oregon had ever seen. He brought about 100 team members with him to Wall Street. The pushcart that made $65 on its first day now had 471 locations in 11 states.
“It’s a mindblow, man,” he said. “We’ve defied the odds.”
In his letter to investors, Travis wrote that Dane’s illness “did not diminish the incredible inspiration I draw from my brother.” Dane had been gone for twelve years.
Today, Dutch Bros continues to grow exponentially from its first pushcart. All because two brothers focused on what really matters most: family, a good-quality product, and a company culture that cares about people first. For me, that’s the kind of coffee where I’ll drive an hour to wait in line for 30 minutes just to get my Iced Caramel Pumpkin Brûlée Breve because it makes me feel as good as it tastes.
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