“It was love at first sight.” – Ray Kroc Richard and Maurice McDonald started McDonald’s in 1948 with a single location in San Bernardino, California. Ray Kroc who had been working as a milkshake-machine salesman, became the McDonald brothers’ franchise agent in 1954. The McDonald brothers weren’t ambitious enough, and therefore Ray Kroc played a key role in making McDonald’s as it is today. In 1961, the brothers were at odds with Kroc which led to Kroc buying the McDonald name and the business