Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV • Hacker News Board

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#141

Post by stevenwu » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:53 PM UTC

On the topic of raising/burning $:

I remember seeing that they had a position open for a software engineering role. If I remember the job description correctly, they've built out their own online store?

I recently saw that you can buy their products through Amazon - I wonder if it was money well spent to roll out their own web store versus using Amazon/Shopify. As a past customer I don't remember seeing any particularly unique feature that made hiring in-house staff for this aspect necessary.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#142

Post by ecspike » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

zorbadgreek wrote: post #16

I'm trying to understand what Soylent's business moat is. My inclination is economies of scale to drive cost of goods down, like many food companies. To that end, I don't see their product as all that unique or difficult to replicate, and I also foresee headwinds for them if/when they try to market to a broader base of consumers who already have powders, shakes, bars, and hundreds of other meal substitutes to choose…

They don't really have one. If you go to https://www.completefoods.co/ , you can find a bunch of meal replacement recipes many of which are soylent inspired because they couldn't get soylent shipped to them. Some people also ship their custom blends.

/r/soylent is a popular place where people talk about meal replacements.

I think they are kind of like Kleenex, they will become the common name for the genre.

As for taste, I tried Soylent and it tasted like wet cardboard to me. I ended up switching to Schmilk (you mix the powder with milk) and the now discontinued 100% Food.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#143

Post by cbr » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

doughj3 wrote: post #22

CPLX wrote: post #4

That's quite a chunk of change for rebranding SlimFast for the urban millennial set. I wonder how many other eight figure venture-fundable concepts could be exploited by lurking in the grocery store aisles with a label maker.

Shame you're being downvoted. You can find powdered meals or ready-to-go shakes with similar or better nutrient profiles than Soylent in most grocery stores .

"similar or better nutrient profiles than Soylent in most grocery stores"

Really? Slimfast and Ensure have much higher amounts of sugar; what are you thinking of?

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#144

Post by briantakita » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

johnfn wrote: post #58

milquetoastaf wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What advantage does Soylent have over say, other meal replacements e.g. Slimfast, weight watcher shakes, juices etc that have existed for years before it and will continue to do so for years after? All I see is SV hype and marketing. In fact you just showed that Soylent is easily outplayed because you switched to a different drink already.

> easily outplayed because you switched to a different drink already. Not really. Soylent is much cheaper than Ample, and that's a major plus for the cost conscious (which is a lot of people!) As for the other ones - honestly mostly marketing I'd imagine. I've never heard of any product billed as a "nutritionally complete" meal. SlimFast to me sounds like a dieting product (as do weight watcher shakes), which isn't w…

I lived on Garden of Life's Raw Organic Meal + Green Vibrance + Alkaline Water for a while.

https://www.gardenoflife.com/content/product/why-choose-raw-...

https://www.vibranthealth.com/green-vibrance/

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#145

Post by adamors » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

bkanber wrote: post #109

icelancer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I'd generally agree with you, you can look up any "meal replacement" shakes made for athletes that are used to add calories. They contain a large amount of protein and calories and are fairly well established. MET-Rx Meal Replacement is one of the larger SKUs on the market, but there are many others.

If it has a large amount of protein, it's not an actual meal replacement -- it's a supplement.

An average meal comprised meat and rice contains a large amount of protein. It's a relacement for that. What are you talking about?

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#146

Post by VikingCoder » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #93

VikingCoder wrote: post #54

Soylent was fine. I maintained weight, and was eating better, and the food was easy. But I'm in a medical weight loss program now, and I'm loving it. It's doctor supervised, I started out at 400 pounds, and I'm down to 360 after five weeks. It's medically supervised because I'm in ketosis, which can be very dangerous. So best to have blood drawn regularly, etc. But the food is great. You can also get them as your own…

> Again, this is a dangerous diet, but it's medically supervised. I'm glad it's working well for you, but I'd just caution that plenty of quackery is "medically supervised", as were fen-phen ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenfluramine/phentermine ) and the Tuskegee trials.

There's a ton of research on reduced calorie diets, and my physician referred me to this program, and it's run by my hospital system. I meet with dietitians, physical trainers, social workers, and physicians monthly.

/shrug

I don't really know how to evaluate it much better than that.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#147

Post by viridian » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

atomical wrote: post #116

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What advantage does Soylent have over say, other meal replacements e.g. Slimfast, weight watcher shakes, juices etc Which of those examples are actual food replacements instead of liquid candy blasted with vitamins? Slimfast high protein is the only option I see online that doesn't include huge amounts of sugar, but a single 180 calorie shake also gives way too much vitamins and protein to be sane times 10, which i…

Protein isn't a panacea. Eating 2,000 calories of Soylent a day would mean consuming 100 grams of protein. That's unnecessary for the average person.

Man, I wish I needed 100g of protein a day. I try to be very conservative on my intake, and I still need 142g minimum at 180 pounds.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#148

Post by rubber_duck » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:55 PM UTC

johnfn wrote: post #5

Soylent gets a lot of hate (I'm looking forward to skipping out on this thread before the inevitable negative comments from people who assume that Soylent consumers will eat nothing but Soylent for the rest of their lives), but to me, it's solved a large problem in my life: what to eat when I'm hungry but I don't have enough time to prepare a full meal. It can happen every now and then when I'm rushing around, and so…

>what to eat when I'm hungry but I don't have enough time to prepare a full meal.

Protein powder (whey or soy pick based on lactose tolerance) + powdered oats + whatever for flavoring (eg. cocoa powder and coconut flour) in a shaker bottle - add water/whatever milk - shake and consume.

Throw in fiber supplement if you don't get enough fiber like psyllium husks.

Waaay cheaper than soylent if you buy smart (bulk), scale macros according to your requirements, at home or if you have a kitchen at work you can pre-mix powders in a container then scoop out, mix, drink and clean up in 10 mins tops.

Take some fruit along if you want - like an apple or a banana. Honestly soylent seems like a shitty version of a protein shake diet - low satisfaction is there but you get none of the gains.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#149

Post by saturdaysaint » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:55 PM UTC

milquetoastaf wrote: post #21

johnfn wrote: post #5

Soylent gets a lot of hate (I'm looking forward to skipping out on this thread before the inevitable negative comments from people who assume that Soylent consumers will eat nothing but Soylent for the rest of their lives), but to me, it's solved a large problem in my life: what to eat when I'm hungry but I don't have enough time to prepare a full meal. It can happen every now and then when I'm rushing around, and so…

What advantage does Soylent have over say, other meal replacements e.g. Slimfast, weight watcher shakes, juices etc that have existed for years before it and will continue to do so for years after? All I see is SV hype and marketing. In fact you just showed that Soylent is easily outplayed because you switched to a different drink already.

There's a marked difference between all of the above if you take a cursory glance at the nutritional information. If you tried to eat a 2,000 calorie diet on classic Slim Fast, you'd be getting around 200 grams of sugar and over twice the recommended daily allowance of sodium. Ensure, Cliff Bars and a lot of other popular snacks of that kind compared about as unfavorably last time I checked.

I agree with the common sentiment that Soylent's original goal/purpose - a simple powder/drink that could serve as one's sole source of nutrition - is sort of ridiculous, but it actually led to a remarkably well balanced product unlike anything on the mass market. It's remarkably filling and nutritionally well balanced for a convenience food.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#150

Post by BugsJustFindMe » Thu, May 04, 2017, 3:55 PM UTC

atomical wrote: post #116

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What advantage does Soylent have over say, other meal replacements e.g. Slimfast, weight watcher shakes, juices etc Which of those examples are actual food replacements instead of liquid candy blasted with vitamins? Slimfast high protein is the only option I see online that doesn't include huge amounts of sugar, but a single 180 calorie shake also gives way too much vitamins and protein to be sane times 10, which i…

Protein isn't a panacea. Eating 2,000 calories of Soylent a day would mean consuming 100 grams of protein. That's unnecessary for the average person.

Eating 2000 calories of Slimfast notcompletelysugar^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^high protein, because it seems to be their only option that isn't giant heaping piles of sugar, would net you 222g (and wickedly overload you on vitamins, but, you know, whatever, right?). Which would you prefer?