Meet Ray Kroc: He Paid $2.7 Million for McDonald’s—Now It’s Worth Over $223 Billion

Have you ever walked into a McDonald’s and wondered, “Who started all of this?” Maybe you thought the name itself had the answer. And you’d be partly right—but not entirely.

The true story of McDonald’s isn’t as simple as two brothers flipping burgers. It’s a tale of vision, scale, and smart business moves. It’s about how one man saw something small—and turned it into something the world had never seen before.

The Real Beginnings: San Bernardino, 1940

In 1940, Richard and Maurice McDonald, two brothers from New Hampshire, opened a drive-in barbecue restaurant in San Bernardino, California. Within a few years, they realized burgers, fries, and sodas were their best-selling items. So they shut the place down, redesigned it, and opened a brand-new version in 1948—focused purely on speed and simplicity.

They called it the “Speedee Service System”, and it was one of the earliest models of what we now call fast food. The brothers focused on efficiency, cutting out anything that slowed down the cooking and serving process. Customers loved it. Food came out quickly, tasted the same every time, and cost very little.

But while the McDonald brothers were great at running a restaurant, they weren’t interested in building hundreds of them. That’s where Ray Kroc enters the story.

The Entry of Ray Kroc in McDondonald’s 

In 1954, one day, Ray Kroc, a 52-year-old milkshake mixer salesman, visited the McDonald brothers’ restaurant because they had ordered eight of his machines—far more than most places ever needed. What he saw amazed him: a line of customers outside, food ready in under a minute, and a kitchen that looked like a factory.

Kroc believed this wasn’t just a restaurant—it was a model that could work across America. According to McDonald’s official website, Kroc convinced the brothers to let him start franchising their system. He opened the first McDonald’s franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.

But tensions started to grow. Kroc wanted to expand fast. The brothers were cautious and resistant to change. They disagreed on advertising, growth strategies, and even basic operations. Kroc eventually bought them out in 1961 for $2.7 million—a deal that gave him full control but left the brothers with almost nothing from the growing profits.

Who Was Ray Kroc?

Ray Kroc was not a chef or a food innovator. He was a businessman who approached McDonald’s like a business system, not just a food chain. First, he created Hamburger University to train franchise owners in how to run their stores with consistency. 

Then, instead of just making money from burgers, Kroc formed a company that owned the land where each McDonald’s restaurant would be built. This real estate strategy became one of McDonald’s most powerful business assets, as confirmed in interviews and documents cited by CNBC.

Under his leadership, the brand grew rapidly, not just across the U.S., but around the world. The company added products like the Big Mac in 1967 and the Egg McMuffin in 1972—items that would become global favorites.

Kroc understood that standardization and simplicity were the key to making people feel familiar with McDonald’s anywhere they went. Here’s more info about McDonald’s secrete founder.

Why Do People Still Call Him the “Founder”?

Technically, Ray Kroc didn’t start McDonald’s. But in many ways, he built it. He took a small idea and turned it into a machine that could run at massive scale. That’s why even McDonald’s own archives refer to him as the man who “founded the McDonald’s Corporation.”

The McDonald brothers created a smart, simple restaurant. Ray Kroc created the global brand. 

If you want a deeper look at the full backstory, including the business conflicts between Kroc and the brothers, the movie The Founder starring Michael Keaton is a dramatic but fairly accurate adaptation based on historical events.