Ryan Trahan

Ryan Michael Trahan (born October 7 1998) is an American YouTuber, vlogger, and entrepreneur, with a YouTube following of over 12 million subscribers. Trahan is best known for his "penny challenge" series, which ran through the month of June 2022. Trahan is the founder of several businesses, including Neptune Bottle, and clothing line Howdy Howdy.

Ryan Trahan
Trahan in 2018
Personal information
Born (1998-10-07) October 7, 1998
Eagle Lake, Texas, United States
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2013–present
Subscribers12.4 million
Total views1.96 billion
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers2019
10,000,000 subscribers2022
Last updated: May 14, 2023

Early life and career

Ryan Michael Trahan was born on 7 October 1998 in the Eagle Lake, Texas, later attending Rice High School in the town of Altair.[1] While in high school and later attending Texas A&M University, Trahan was a cross country runner, placing third in the Aggieland Open competition in 2017.[2]

Having starting a water bottle brand, Neptune Bottle, in 2016 with friend Caden Wiese, Trahan eventually left A&M due to being ruled ineligible National Collegiate Athletic Association over Trahan using his channel to both share running videos and advertise his company as a student athlete.[3][4][lower-alpha 1] Although Trahan agreed a waiver with the association allowing him to continue running his business while remaining an athlete,[6] Trahan dropped out of university[7] to continue working on the business.[8] According to Trahan, in the first year of its existence, Neptune Bottle had earned over $50,000 in revenue.[9]

Youtube

Trahan started his Youtube channel on October 27, 2013. Originally producing content on running, Trahan creates eclectic content, ranging from Tesla races[10] to outdoor camping.[11] Trahan reached 1,000,000 subscribers on 29 January, 2019, and 10,000,000 on 4 July 2022.

Penny Challenge

Originally inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk[12], in June 2022 Trahan started a month long series dubbed the "Penny Challenge", going viral. The premise of the challenge was, starting in California with a single penny, to travel to and deliver a to MrBeast in North Carolina, using only funds derived from said penny. Throughout the month, Trahan fundraised $1.38 million for the nonprofit Feeding America.[13] Trahan chose to start with a penny on the basis that it was "going extinct in 2023".[14]

Trahan financed the challenge through completing online surveys, mowing lawns, dog walking and selling items such as soft drinks, bottled water, and golf balls, among other methods.[15]

To help garner funds for Feeding America, Trahan created incentives for donations, in particular "THE GREAT RESET", where a $50,000 donation to the fundraiser would reset his earned funds to a penny.[16] In addition to this, for $100,000 donations (of which he received three), Trahan had donator-chosen designs tattooed on himself.[15] The was largely sponsored by PayPal Honey.[17]

Streamy Awards

Trahan was nominated for two categories in the 12th Streamy Awards, winning the category for "Breakout Creator".[18]

Awards and nominations for Ryan Trahan
Year Ceremony Category Result
2022 Streamy Awards Creator For Social Good Nominated
Breakout Creator Won

Personal life

Trahan is a Christian.[19] In 2022, Trahan started a clothing line, Howdy Howdy.[20]

Footnotes

Notes
  1. At the time, the National Collegiate Athletic Association had restrictions on student athletes taking sponsorships from brands; these rules were altered in June 2021.[5]

References
  1. Hale, James (2020-02-07). "YouTube Millionaires: Ryan Trahan, Who's Gaining More Than 10K Subscribers Every Single Day, Is Ready To Make 2020 His Best Year Ever". Tubefilter. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  2. Price, Shawn (2017-10-10). "Texas A&M's Ryan Trahan earns SEC Freshman Runner of the Week honor". KBTX. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  3. Chavez, Chris (Sep 21, 2017). "Texas A&M Runner Ryan Trahan Says He Was Ruled Ineligible For Popular YouTube Page". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  4. Nathan, Alec. "NCAA Rules Runner Ryan Trahan Can't Use Athletics to Promote His Company". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  5. Salvador, Joseph (June 30, 2021). "NCAA Approves Interim NIL Policy, Change Will Take Effect Thursday". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  6. Huebsch, Tim (2017-09-22). "Cross-country runner in hot water with NCAA for popular YouTube page". Canadian Running Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  7. "Ryan Trahan's Journey From College Dropout to 6.8 Million YouTube Subscribers". Shopify. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  8. Gruenling, Jessica (2017-11-07). "Texas A&M cross country runner leaving school to grow his business". KBTX. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  9. Payne, Marissa (September 22, 2017). "Texas A&M runner's water bottle company causes NCAA kerfuffle". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  10. Rosales, Lara (2023-02-07). "How Ryan Trahan Really Became So Famous On YouTube". Nicki Swift. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  11. "Revenge is usually served hot. For Ryan Trahan, it's ice cold -- and sponsored by Google". Tubefilter. 2023-03-31. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  12. "What's Ryan Trahan's secret to going viral?". blog.youtube. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  13. Gutelle, Sam (2022-06-30). "Ryan Trahan's 30-day journey to MrBeast got more than 190 million views and raised $1.38 million for charity". Tubefilter. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  14. Shrivastava, Aarnesh (2022-06-28). "What is the Ryan Trahan challenge? Understanding why the YouTuber is crossing America with 1 penny". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  15. Rennie, Hudson (2022-07-29). "How This 23-Year-Old YouTuber Raised $1.38 Million Doing Remote Side Hustles". Medium. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  16. Green, Jonathan (2022-06-24). "Ryan Trahan Is Flying Across America With Just A Penny - Travel Radar". Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  17. Gutelle, Sam (2022-10-10). "Ryan Trahan has turned his "penny challenge" into a speedrun". Tubefilter. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  18. Chan, J. Clara (2022-12-05). "YouTube Streamy Awards: MrBeast Takes Top Creator; Full List of Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  19. Unthank, Kennedy. "Ryan Trahan". Plugged In. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  20. Trahan, Ryan (Sep 26, 2022). "Ryan Trahan on Twitter:". Twitter. Retrieved 2023-05-10. i tried my best at a DIY photoshoot for my first merch drop in so long. worked so hard on howdy howdy. link in bio to pre-order
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