It’s one thing to say you love pizza.
It’s another to realize you want to be working with it for the rest of your life.
That’s just what one Corpus Christi man has done, starting at the bottom and climbing all the way to the top.
It’s been quite a journey for Daniel Dain, who began his career with Domino’s as a deliveryman at the age of 22.
After overcoming a few major obstacles, Daniel and his wife Catherine now own 11 stores in Corpus Christi and the surrounding areas.
And not even a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis could stop these two from excelling.
“I loved the job,” Daniel Dain said. “Like it was the funnest job I’ve ever had. I wanted to be a general manager and then I had to work my way up to that.”
Starting in 1985, Dain entered the Dominos family as a delivery boy, with the hopes of one day becoming a general manager.
“And so I dropped out of school … I wanted to become a Domino’s pizza manager and franchisee so that didn’t go over too well at home,” he said.
For some, not going to college could have easily become a regret.
But that wasn’t Daniel’s case. In four years, he earned the title of GM, then later ‘supervisor’ and eventually became a franchise owner in Corpus Christi in 1999.
“’You know what, I can do this.’ I need to learn and so if you don’t go to college, you still need to learn,” Dain said. “So I took every class I could, I read tons of books. Like everything I could do to get better in the business world.”
It wasn’t long before he got his wife, Katherine, to join the team as well. And her timing to be trained as a successor couldn’t have been better.
You can find the Dains at their store, which include every dominos in Corpus Christi, Portland, Annaville, Robstown, and Alice. And by the end of the summer, they’re looking to expand from owning 11 to 14 stores, with openings taking place on Leopard, the Island, and in Sinton.
