Don't know why GV would invest in Soylent after so much fiasco. Seems like they earn money so easily that they are content to throw it away.
Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
161–170 of 665 posts
Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#162Soylent 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…
Soylent gets a lot of hype, and invariably the hype follows a predictable pattern- "Geez, you don't eat only Soylent! It's just an occasional meal replacement!" "Okay, then how is it interesting when there are dozens of competing products in the meal replacement category?" "Because those aren't a full dietary replacement. You can't live on only Ensure (insert many other products here)." "Okay....but you just said..."…
Partially agreed, though, I replace two meals a day with the UK equivalent. I suffer from depression and ADHD, so while I generally collect myself enough to make a proper evening meal, prior to Huel I would often skip or forget meals, and binge on junk later in the day. I'm working on 50/50.
From the horses mouth, most use cases I've heard are pretty sensible. Very few users treat it as their entire diet. You've a good point that food is great, and it's good to do it right. I'd hope students would take the opportunity to learn, but they rarely do. Still, Soylent or equiv >>> pizza. Most other arguments against it/characterisations are a little circular at best, or reduction to absurdity at worst.
Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#163Soylent 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…
Can't you keep some fruits like strawberry or bananas handy?
Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't go hiking with Slimfast, Weight Watcher shakes, or juices. What I don't understand: the REI market is the one place where Soylent is inarguably better than any other product in its niche, and nobody seems to give a shit about that. I carry a bag of dry Soylent in my SAR pack. When I get sent out on an assignment, I have no idea how long I might be out for. For less weight than any other option, I have dinne…
What are the acronyms REI and SAR?
REI = Recreational Equipment, Inc. (essentially a a camping and hiking store though they do have some general sports stuff like bikes)
SAR = search and rescue
Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate a bit? What exactly is garbage about the ingredients?
First off ingredients on labels are listed in order of most prevalent to least. So what stands out specifically is the unhealthy oils. Sunflower and canola. I'm mobile or I would paste links, but read up on them. Horrible omega ratios, and sketchy by-products are usually found in them (hopefully Soylent at least has quality versions of this). Also maltodextrin is always one of the main ingredients. Super high gi, and…
Why do you say maltodextrin has no nutritional value? From a metabolic recovery / glycogen replenishment perspective it's the most efficient thing you can ingest. Pure maltodextrin (aka "carbs in a can") mixed w/ sugarfree beverage powder is the go-to during/post-workout drink for elite athletes across many sports.
Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't go hiking with Slimfast, Weight Watcher shakes, or juices. What I don't understand: the REI market is the one place where Soylent is inarguably better than any other product in its niche, and nobody seems to give a shit about that. I carry a bag of dry Soylent in my SAR pack. When I get sent out on an assignment, I have no idea how long I might be out for. For less weight than any other option, I have dinne…
What are the acronyms REI and SAR?
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Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Neither is Ensure a "lose weight" brand. But Ensure is an old-people brand. So Soylent (and Ample, which I learned about in this thread) are basically Ensure for young people.
Ensure, like Slimfast, has much more sugar than Soylent. Per 2000 calories, Ensure has 135g sugar to Soylent's 45g. https://ensure.com/nutrition-products/ensure-original#vanill... http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-drink-nutrition-facts-e...
So what.
Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I can't get the hate either, though. I believe the fact that someone just wrote them a $50MM check is a fine reason to make a critical assessment of their actual value.
Why? Most $50mm investments end up worth nothing. The fact a company has investment does not mean they have actual value.
It's a quibble, but I would expect most $50 million dollar investments to be low risk. Things like power plants and so on.
You mean VC investments, the point is that VC investment is a small fraction of overall investment.
Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Do you use it as the occasional convenient meal replacement or how far do you go into replacing all real food? I replace the majority of my meals with Soylent, but the point isn't to replace all meals... >I suspect there is both, but what I am getting at is how much Soylent's long-term success depends on people seeing eating as a nuisance that should be optimized away versus something that should be savoured and enj…
> People who are very busy frequently cannot find the time to prepare nutritious, healthy meals from the bare ingredients, and purchasing ready-made food that is nutritious and healthy can be prohibitively expensive for some people I'm sorry, but I'm getting really tired of reading people use this as a justification for soylent; I'm not saying there is a convenience to it, but phrasing it this way is kind of sad. It…
It does require forethought, planning, a knowledge of how to cook food, and the ability to source and store ingredients, however. All of which sounds like too much of a hassle for me, to be perfectly honest. Rob Rhinehart, the creator of Soylent, doesn't even own a refrigerator (not that I'm suggesting people should be more like Rob...). While you may find it sad that others don't have the time or patience to cook, for a lot of people it's just one of those things they'd rather not have to deal with -- and for those people, Soylent isn't an alternative to cooking real healthy food, but rather to buying a burger at McDonalds.
Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV
#170It amazes me that VCs find this type of business interesting because it's not defensible in many of the ways a software company is. I am also not sure why the company wants to raise this much money -- they need to continue growing like crazy (outside of tech regions where engineers who are unwilling to cook live) or go bust. Nonetheless, the drink is ok. I tried it for a few months. Instead of avoiding cooking, I hav…
I have a sous vide, but it doesn't have bluetooth or whatever Joule has. It seems unnecessary to make all appliances smart when a knob to set the temperature and a timer on the phone works just as well.