Ryan Trahan

Ryan Michael Trahan (born October 7, 1998) is an American YouTuber, vlogger, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his "penny challenge" series, which he has done several of starting from 2017. Trahan has founded multiple businesses such as Neptune Bottle, as well as his clothing line Howdy Howdy.

Ryan Trahan
Trahan in 2018
Personal information
Born (1998-10-07) October 7, 1998.
Eagle Lake, Texas, United States
Spouse
Haley Pham
​
(m. 2020)​
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2013–present
Subscribers13.6 million[1]
Total views2.33 billion[1]
100,000 subscribers2018
1,000,000 subscribers2019
10,000,000 subscribers2022
Last updated: September 4, 2023

Personal life

Trahan was born on October 7, 1998, in 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, Ryan was a cross country runner, placing third in the Aggieland Open competition in 2017.[3]

Trahan started a water bottle brand in 2016 with his friend Caden Wiese, named Neptune Bottle. 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][lower-alpha 1] Although Trahan sought a waiver with the association allowing him to continue running his business while remaining an athlete,[7] Trahan dropped out of university to continue working on the business.[8][9] According to Trahan, in the first year of its existence, Neptune Bottle had earned over $50,000 in revenue.[10]

Trahan, who married YouTuber Haley Pham[P 1] in 2020, is a Christian.[11] In 2023, he started a clothing line, Howdy Howdy.[P 2]

YouTube career

Trahan started his YouTube channel on October 27, 2013. Originally producing content on running, Trahan creates eclectic content, ranging from Tesla races to outdoor camping.[12][13] Trahan reached 1,000,000 subscribers on January 29, 2019, and 10,000,000 on July 4, 2022, and as of October 2023, Trahan's YouTube channel reached 13.8 million subscribers and gained a total of over 2.4 billion video views. Ryan Trahan has compiled over 14.7 million subscribers throughout all Youtube channels he manages. [14]

Penny challenges

Originally inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk,[15] Trahan started a month long series, dubbed the "Penny Challenge", in June 2022. 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, which he was able to fulfill, raising $1.38 million by the end of the month.[16]

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.[17]

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.[18] In addition to this, for $100,000 donations (of which he received three), Trahan had donator-chosen designs tattooed on himself. The series was largely sponsored by PayPal Honey.[19]

In July 2023, the Penny Challenge returned with a new route from Paris to New York City. The challenge retained its original rules, aiming to raise $250,000 for the nonprofit organization Water.org.[20] With the support of the public, Trahan successfully raised over $400,000 for Water.org.[21]

Awards and nominations
Year Ceremony Category Result Ref.
2022 Streamy Awards Creator For Social Good Nominated
Breakout Creator Won [22]

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. "About Ryan Trahan". YouTube.
  2. Hale, James (February 7, 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 May 10, 2023.
  3. Price, Shawn (August 10, 2017). "Texas A&M's Ryan Trahan earns SEC Freshman Runner of the Week honor". KBTX. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  4. Chavez, Chris (September 21, 2017). "Texas A&M Runner Ryan Trahan Says He Was Ruled Ineligible For Popular YouTube Page". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  5. Nathan, Alec (September 21, 2017). "NCAA Rules Runner Ryan Trahan Can't Use Athletics to Promote His Company". Bleacher Report. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  6. Salvador, Joseph (June 30, 2021). "NCAA Approves Interim NIL Policy, Change Will Take Effect Thursday". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  7. Huebsch, Tim (September 22, 2017). "Cross-country runner in hot water with NCAA for popular YouTube page". Canadian Running Magazine. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  8. "Ryan Trahan's Journey From College Dropout to 6.8 Million YouTube Subscribers". Shopify. March 24, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  9. Gruenling, Jessica (November 7, 2017). "Texas A&M cross country runner leaving school to grow his business". KBTX. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  10. Payne, Marissa (September 22, 2017). "Texas A&M runner's water bottle company causes NCAA kerfuffle". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  11. Unthank, Kennedy. "n Trahan". Plugged In. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  12. Rosales, Lara (February 7, 2023). "How Ryan Trahan Really Became So Famous On YouTube". Nicki Swift. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  13. "Revenge is usually served hot. For Ryan Trahan, it's ice cold -- and sponsored by Google". Tubefilter. March 31, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  14. "Ryan Trahan YouTube stats and analytics". ThoughtLeaders.
  15. "What's Ryan Trahan's secret to going viral?". blog.youtube. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  16. Gutelle, Sam (June 30, 2022). "Ryan Trahan's 30-day journey to MrBeast got more than 190 million views and raised $1.38 million for charity". Tubefilter. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  17. Rennie, Hudson (July 29, 2022). "How This 23-Year-Old YouTuber Raised $1.38 Million Doing Remote Side Hustles". Medium. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  18. Green, Jonathan (June 24, 2022). "Ryan Trahan Is Flying Across America With Just A Penny - Travel Radar". Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  19. Gutelle, Sam (October 10, 2022). "Ryan Trahan has turned his "penny challenge" into a speedrun". Tubefilter. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  20. "Ryan Trahan's latest penny challenge raised $400,000 for Water.org". Tubefilter. July 7, 2023. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  21. "1 Penny. Safe water for all". give.Water.org. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  22. Chan, J. Clara (December 5, 2022). "YouTube Streamy Awards: MrBeast Takes Top Creator; Full List of Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 10, 2023.

Primary sources
  1. I Proposed. Ryan Trahan. May 23, 2020. Retrieved August 7, 2023 – via YouTube.
  2. Ryan Trahan [@RyanTrahan] (September 26, 2022). "NEW MERCH LIVE 🤠" (Tweet). Retrieved August 7, 2022 – via Twitter.
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