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Ryan Trahan

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Ryan Trahan
Trahan in 2018
Personal information
Born (1998-10-07) 7 October 1998 (age 25)
Eagle Lake, Texas, United States
Spouse
Haley Pham
​
(m. 2020)​
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2013–present
Subscribers13 million[1]
Total views2.14 billion[1]
100,000 subscribers2018
1,000,000 subscribers2019
10,000,000 subscribers2022
Last updated: July 5, 2023

Ryan Michael Trahan (born 7 October, 1998) is an American YouTuber, vlogger, and entrepreneur, with a YouTube following of over 13 million subscribers. Trahan is best known for his "penny challenge" series, which he has done several of starting from 2017. Trahan is the founder of several businesses, including Neptune Bottle, and clothing line Howdy Howdy.

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.[2] 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.[3]

Having started a water bottle brand, Neptune Bottle, in 2016 with friend Caden Wiese, Trahan eventually left A&M due to being ruled ineligible by the National Collegiate Athletic Association over Trahan using his channel to both share running videos and advertise his company as a student athlete.[4][5][a] Although Trahan agreed a waiver with the association allowing him to continue running his business while remaining an athlete,[7] Trahan dropped out of university[8] to continue working on the business.[9] According to Trahan, in the first year of its existence, Neptune Bottle had earned over $50,000 in revenue.[10]

YouTube

Trahan started his Youtube channel on 27 October, 2013. Originally producing content on running, Trahan creates eclectic content, ranging from Tesla races[11] to outdoor camping.[12] 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,[13] 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 MrBeast in North Carolina and deliver the original penny, using only funds derived from said penny. Trahan originally set a target to fundraise $100,000 for the nonprofit Feeding America. $100,000, which he was able to fulfill, raising $1.38 million by the end of the month.[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 2023, 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.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b "About Ryan Trahan". YouTube.
  2. ^ Hale, James (7 February 2020). "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 10 May 2023.
  3. ^ Price, Shawn (10 August 2017). "Texas A&M's Ryan Trahan earns SEC Freshman Runner of the Week honor". KBTX. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  4. ^ Chavez, Chris (21 September 2017). "Texas A&M Runner Ryan Trahan Says He Was Ruled Ineligible For Popular YouTube Page". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  5. ^ Nathan, Alec. "NCAA Rules Runner Ryan Trahan Can't Use Athletics to Promote His Company". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  6. ^ Salvador, Joseph (30 June 2021). "NCAA Approves Interim NIL Policy, Change Will Take Effect Thursday". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  7. ^ Huebsch, Tim (22 September 2017). "Cross-country runner in hot water with NCAA for popular YouTube page". Canadian Running Magazine. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Ryan Trahan's Journey From College Dropout to 6.8 Million YouTube Subscribers". Shopify. 24 March 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  9. ^ Gruenling, Jessica (7 November 2017). "Texas A&M cross country runner leaving school to grow his business". KBTX. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  10. ^ Payne, Marissa (22 September 2017). "Texas A&M runner's water bottle company causes NCAA kerfuffle". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  11. ^ Rosales, Lara (7 February 2023). "How Ryan Trahan Really Became So Famous On YouTube". Nicki Swift. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  12. ^ "Revenge is usually served hot. For Ryan Trahan, it's ice cold -- and sponsored by Google". Tubefilter. 31 March 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  13. ^ "What's Ryan Trahan's secret to going viral?". blog.youtube. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  14. ^ Gutelle, Sam (30 June 2022). "Ryan Trahan's 30-day journey to MrBeast got more than 190 million views and raised $1.38 million for charity". Tubefilter. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  15. ^ a b Rennie, Hudson (29 July 2022). "How This 23-Year-Old YouTuber Raised $1.38 Million Doing Remote Side Hustles". Medium. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  16. ^ Green, Jonathan (24 June 2022). "Ryan Trahan Is Flying Across America With Just A Penny - Travel Radar". Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  17. ^ Gutelle, Sam (10 October 2022). "Ryan Trahan has turned his "penny challenge" into a speedrun". Tubefilter. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  18. ^ Chan, J. Clara (5 December 2022). "YouTube Streamy Awards: MrBeast Takes Top Creator; Full List of Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  19. ^ Unthank, Kennedy. "Ryan Trahan". Plugged In. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  20. ^ Trahan, Ryan (26 September 2022). "Ryan Trahan on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 10 May 2023. 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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