The 14-Year Overnight Success: How Joyride Cracked the Creator-CPG Code

Tyler Merrick spent 14 years building a mission-driven candy company that never quite took off. Then, in 2023, he partnered with YouTuber Ryan Trahan. Within 18 months, Joyride became Target's #1 selling candy and just raised $30 million.

The Origin Story: From Pet Food to Purpose-Driven Candy

Tyler Merrick's entrepreneurial DNA was forged in his family's pet food business, Merrick Pet Care. After helping scale the company from $3 million to $45 million in just five years, he sold his stake in 2007. But success felt hollow without purpose.

In 2008, Merrick launched Project 7 with an audacious mission: create consumer products that would fund seven areas of global need—hunger, clean water, shelter, health, education, environment, and peace. The name itself embodied the vision.

His first product? All-natural gum that would change the world.

It was terrible.

"It was genuinely awful," retailers told him bluntly. Whole Foods made one order and never reordered. The lesson was harsh but essential: good intentions don't excuse bad products.

The Long Game: 14 Years of Foundation Building

Most people see Joyride's explosive 2024 growth and assume it's another overnight creator success. They're missing the real story.

Tyler Merrick launched Project 7 in 2008 with noble intentions: create better-for-you candy that funds seven areas of global need (hunger, water, shelter, health, education, environment, peace). The brand secured distribution at major retailers and earned press coverage. It had everything startup founders dream of.

Except scale.

For 14 years, Project 7 remained a niche player in the massive candy market. It was the classic case of a good product with a good mission that couldn't break through the noise. Merrick was essentially running a successful small business, not building a category disruptor.

The Pivot: From Mission to Product

By 2023, Merrick made a crucial decision: rebrand to Joyride and sharpen the focus on what actually mattered to consumers, low-sugar candy that didn't compromise on taste.

This wasn't abandoning the mission. It was recognising a fundamental truth about consumer behavior: product excellence drives purchase decisions, not purpose alone.

The new Joyride positioned itself as "wildly impossible candy":

• 95% less sugar than leading brands

• Plant-based ingredients

• No artificial colors

• Bold, streetwear-inspired packaging

But even with a superior product and fresh brand, Joyride was still missing the catalyst for explosive growth.

Enter Ryan Trahan: The Perfect Match

In 2024, everything changed when YouTuber Ryan Trahan joined as co-owner. This wasn't a typical influencer deal. Trahan brought:

• 14.7 million YouTube subscribers who trusted his recommendations

• Authentic candy obsession featured regularly in his content

• Creative vision as Chief Creative Officer, not just a spokesperson

• Geographic alignment (both based in Austin)

The partnership made sense on every level. Trahan wasn't just lending his name he was building a business.

The Launch That Broke the Internet

On February 13, 2024, Trahan uploaded "My Last Video." The cinematic production featured him as the last man on Earth, revealing Joyride's new sour strips in a dramatic finale.

The results:

• 4 million views in 24 hours

• Complete inventory sellout

• Website crash from traffic

• #1 trending on YouTube

But here's the genius move: Instead of immediately flooding retail, they created a 30-day voting period where fans picked their favourite flavor. Only the winner would go to mass production and retail.

This created scarcity, community engagement, and proof of demand before approaching Target.

From Zero to Category Leader in 18 Months

When Joyride Sour Strips hit 1,300 Target stores in June 2024, they didn't just succeed they dominated:

• Became #1 selling candy at Target within months

• Maintained viral heat on TikTok and YouTube

• Expanded to Walmart, Amazon, 7-Eleven

• Just raised $30 million in Series A funding (June 2025)

The product delivered on its promise:

• Only 4 grams of sugar (80% less than competitors)

• Gut-friendly prebiotic fiber

• No synthetic dyes

• 100% plant-based

• Packaging that looked like streetwear, not candy

The Creator CPG Landscape: Context and Competition

Joyride's success didn't happen in a vacuum. The creator economy had been building toward this moment:

Sour Strips (Maxx Chewning)

• Founded: 2019

• Sold to Hershey: November 2024

• Price: ~$75 million (rumored)

• Revenue at sale: ~$20-24 million

Feastables (MrBeast)

• Founded: 2022

• First year revenue: $10 million

• Still independent, competing with Hershey

Prime Hydration (Logan Paul & KSI)

• Founded: 2022

• Valuation: $1.2 billion (2023)

• Challenges: Multiple lawsuits, quality issues

The pattern is clear: creators who authentically love their product category and partner with experienced operators can build massive businesses fast.

Five Unconventional Lessons from the Joyride Playbook

1. The 14-Year Overnight Success

Merrick's journey proves that "overnight success" in CPG takes a decade or more. But those years weren't wasted—they built the infrastructure, relationships, and knowledge that made Joyride's explosive growth possible.

2. Product-Influencer Fit > Influencer Reach

Ryan Trahan has 14.7 million subscribers. MrBeast has 300+ million. But Trahan was the perfect fit because he authentically loved candy, shared Joyride's values, and wanted to build something real not just cash a check.

3. Make Ads That Are Content

Trahan's launch video was content his audience wanted to watch. This is the fundamental shift: stop interrupting content with ads, make ads that ARE content.

4. Community Before Retail

The traditional CPG playbook: develop product → pitch retailers → pray for distribution → spend on marketing.

The creator playbook: build community → test with superfans → prove demand → retailers come to you.

5. Timing Beats Everything

• 2008: Market wasn't ready for creator-driven CPG

• 2019: Maxx Chewning proves the model with Sour Strips

• 2022: MrBeast legitimizes creator candy with Feastables

• 2023: Perfect moment for experienced CPG + creator partnership

The Playbook for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

For CPG Founders:

Build Infrastructure First Master manufacturing, distribution, and regulations before seeking creator partners. Merrick's 14 years of learning made Joyride's rapid scaling possible.

Find Your Ryan Trahan Look for values alignment, not just reach. Give them real ownership and creative control. Choose creators who authentically use your category.

Be Patient but Opportunistic Build for the long term but be ready to move fast when the moment arrives. Merrick waited 14 years for the right partner—then executed flawlessly.

For Creators:

Partner, Don't Just Endorse Equity beats one-time payments. Creative control beats easy money. Think long-term value creation, not quick cash grabs.

Choose Categories You Love Your audience knows when you're faking. Authentic enthusiasm can't be manufactured. Trahan's genuine candy obsession made the partnership believable.

Bring More Than Audience Contribute to product development, marketing creativity, and long-term strategy. Be a true partner, not just a megaphone.

What's Next for Joyride?

With $30 million in fresh funding, Joyride is positioned for massive expansion:

• New products: watermelon wedges, ropes, twists

• International markets

• Expanded retail presence

• Category innovation

The billion-dollar question: Will Joyride follow Sour Strips' path to acquisition?

Given the trajectory, potential acquirers are likely circling:

• Hershey (already bought Sour Strips, wants more creator brands)

• Mars (needs to compete with Hershey's creator strategy)

• Mondelez (seeking younger demographic)

• Ferrero (expanding beyond traditional chocolate)

The Bottom Line

The Joyride story rewrites the rules of CPG success. It proves that in today's creator economy, the most powerful brands aren't just built in boardrooms they can be built in YouTube studios and TikTok comments. But viral moments alone don't create lasting businesses.

Success requires:

• Exceptional products that solve real problems

• Authentic partnerships built on shared values

• Patient capital that understands building takes time

• Perfect timing when market conditions align

Tyler Merrick spent 14 years learning these lessons. Ryan Trahan brought the spark that ignited the rocket. Together, they've created a blueprint every CPG founder and creator should study.

As Trahan says: "Y'all know I love candy, but all the top brands are packed with horrible ingredients."

Joyride proved you can have both: candy that tastes amazing AND doesn't destroy your body. That's not just good business—it's the future of CPG.

In the creator economy, overnight success takes a decade or more. But when product excellence meets creator authenticity at the right moment, magic happens.

And sometimes, that magic is worth $30 million.