Neptune Bottles, a reusable water bottle company, was founded by 17 year old Ryan Trahan while in high school. Trahan, who also is on the Texas A&M track and field team started the company to help impact the massive plastic waste problems, and how it is negatively affecting our oceans. So, the foundation of his company is socially driven. A portion of proceeds from every water bottle sold goes to the Plastic Oceans foundation, which raises awareness for this problem, and also helps to clean up oceans around the world. His water bottles are also differentiated from a lot of the competition due to their exceptional overall quality. These bottles are BPA free, environmentally friendly, and are made of food grade stainless steel. Also, they are sweat resistant, and vacuum sealed, meaning they can keep liquid cold or hot for 24 hours.
However, the interesting part of this story comes from the fact that Trahan made national news regarding the NCAA. They made this young entrepreneur choose between owning his company, or participating in Division 1 athletics. They argued that he wasn’t allowed to use his notoriety or “fame” as an athlete to earn monetary gains. Many people found this extremely unjust, and ultimately Trahan ended up dropping out of college all together for his business. Ultimately, his persistence and dedication to his business should help him thrive in the future, and shows some of the essential qualities that successful entrepreneurs have.
It definitely seems that most businesses today need to have some type of social aspect, so it’s nice to see that they are doing that as well. As for his college, it seems he made the right decision. Sad that they had to treat him that way.
In a generation where we tend to give back to society not by donating money, but by purchasing products with some sort of social or environmental impact, companies like this tend to succeed. Also, props to him for choosing his business over DI athletics. Unfortunate that he had to choose but I believe he made the right choice.
Millennials love to buy products that have a social impact and here is another great example of innovation for the new generation. Reusable water bottles are a great place to start towards helping with pollution. I hope this guy goes places!
What an awesome story of confidence! It must have been very risky for him to leave his college career behind, including all the money he must’ve already invested into his education, to chase after his water bottle company. I’m excited that his product is so exceptional, and the Plastic Oceans Foundation is a great nonprofit in the environmental space.
It’s very sad that he had to drop out of college in order to keep his business, but I think he made the right choice doing so. Owning and running a business is just as educational as a degree and in some aspects can teach you more. And if he handles his money wisely and saves it, he could afford to go back to college down the road and pursue a degree.