Although he has retired from the world of bodybuilding, Ryan Deluca is a name that we will not soon forget. He is an interesting enigma who achieved massive excellence by doing something he has enjoyed since childhood.
Despite all the accusations and controversies that have haunted him on several occasions, he pursued his dreams with such determination that he finally achieved the desired success.
Who Is Ryan Deluca?
Ryan Deluca is a bodybuilder and the founder of BodyBuilding.com, an online retailer of everything related to fitness, such as bodybuilding supplements, sports equipment, and nutritional supplements.
The story of how he built his empire from the ground up has certainly influenced many to pursue their dreams, despite the many stumbling blocks that may try to stop them. Right after high school, he immersed himself in the world of fitness and was so determined that he took the bold step of starting the business in his garage. At the time, he had very little experience of how to run a business, but he was determined to succeed because he only intended to create a business that would appeal to every potential customer.
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Starting his business right after high school did not stop him from going to college, he just had different priorities than the typical college kids. He hardly ever joined the parties and practically never did anything that could be considered fun for a college boy, because for him it was all he needed to take his business to greater heights.
At the age of 21 after college, Ryan Deluca took his business to the next level by buying the domain BodyBuilding.com for $20,000. This was sure proof that his business was going great.
He continued to do what he did best, and within the next few years, the online presence he gained took him to a new peak as the site gained even more recognition than many who had started before him. What’s more, the website not only did well, it earned Deluca millions, and in 2006 he was added to the list of “30 under 30″: America’s Coolest Entrepreneurs” at number 5 on the list compiled by Inc Magazine. This in itself is a very impressive achievement.
The company was doing well, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t challenges, he had quite a few of them. His low point came in 2012, when his brother Jeremy, who runs the company with him, and the company itself pleaded guilty to having sold misbranded steroids sometime between 2006 and 2009. That same year, the BodyBuilding.com training supplement of the year, Driven Sports Craze, was also found to contain a potentially dangerous amount of a methamphetamine analog. This was a huge scandal, as the methamphetamine analog was not tested safe for human consumption at the time. For all this, the U.S. Department of Justice fined BodyBuilding.com $7 million, while Jeremy Deluca was fined $600,000.
After the ordeals of 2012, Ryan was still doing his best to keep the company afloat, which was certainly no easy task. But it all came to an end in 2015 when the CEO announced that he was retiring from the company after 17 years of hard work at the top.
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Before the difficulties of 2012, Ryan Deluca had taken the bold step of selling the company’s majority stake to Liberty Media Corporation for a whopping $100 million. By the time he retires, Ryan Deluca is said to be worth $150 million, but this is not a verified estimate of his assets.
Does He have a Wife or Girlfriend?
Ryan Deluca may not have a wife right now, but he did at one point. He was once married to a woman whose details are currently unknown because he kept everything about his marriage secret from the prying eyes of the media. However, we do know that Ryan had three beautiful children with his wife before the marriage ended in divorce.
After his divorce was finalized, Deluca began a relationship with a lady who’s name is also unknown. They were together for a while and everything seemed to go well until they separated.
Before the separation, Deluca had used his girlfriend’s phone to send a message to a multi-millionaire Internet millionaire and gambler Dan Bilzerian. There was no real evidence of what was in the message, but apparently, it upset Dan, who in retaliation posted almost naked photos of Deluca’s girl on his social media site, claiming he slept with her.
Of course, many expected Deluca to rise to the occasion with such a provocation, but he went the opposite way and instead demanded to have more Instagram followers than Dan in a year. He later made a statement making it clear that he was not with the said lady when she slept with Dan.
A year after the 2016 tidal wave, eager fans did a poll to see who had won the challenge of having more followers, and of course, Dan was way ahead of Deluca. The whole drama confirmed Dan’s nickname – the king of Instagram.
