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Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

blog.soylent.com

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

#171

Post by johnfn »

rubatuga wrote: post #155

Although I was initially brought onto the hype train by great marketing and the promises of health and complete nutrition, I realize that my initial reliance on Soylent was actually part of a deeper problem, brought on by problems such as depression and inappropriate time management. When in reality I should have had enough time to eat out or possibly even cook a meal, I found myself relying on Soylent. I didn't leav…

Very interesting comment. Definitely food for thought.

One thing to keep in mind is it's not only depresssion that could cause the poor time management that Soylent benefits from. The whole "gotta be working every minute of every day" ethos of SV can feed into this very easily as well. Which isn't also to say that the two can't be intertwined...

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

#172

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

rubatuga wrote: post #155

Although I was initially brought onto the hype train by great marketing and the promises of health and complete nutrition, I realize that my initial reliance on Soylent was actually part of a deeper problem, brought on by problems such as depression and inappropriate time management. When in reality I should have had enough time to eat out or possibly even cook a meal, I found myself relying on Soylent. I didn't leav…

You were depressed so everyone is depressed? I don't think that follows.

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

#173

Post by gnode »

i_am_viet wrote: post #111
PerfectElement wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The advantage, for me, is that there are no animal products in Soylent.

Except on those days when it isn't. https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/24/dairy-might-have-snuck-int...

Unless you grow and prepare all your food yourself, you have this problem with anything.

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

#174

Post by rockostrich »

wil421 wrote: post #77
tonydiv wrote: post #49

It 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…

What meals are you cooking for $3-4 on the Joule? Looking at getting a Joule soon.

Any meal you can cook without the Joule using other cooking methods. 8 oz of chicken breast (~$1.50), 6 oz of brussel sprouts (~$0.75), 8 oz of potatoes (~$0.25). That's a $2.50 meal. Add half an onion, some bell pepper, some spices, and oil for cooking and it probably comes out to less than $3.

Of course, those are average food prices in the US so YMMV. If you're in NYC or LA/SF, it's going to cost more than that no matter where you shop.

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

#175

Post by icelancer »

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.

Yeah, just like ketogenic dieting and no-carb diets are supplements.

What?

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

#176

Post by luhn »

mks40 wrote: post #32

A question to Soylent customers: Do you use it as the occasional convenient meal replacement or how far do you go into replacing all real food? 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 enjoyed. To me this is in the context of the larger question of p…

> ...people seeing eating as a nuisance that should be optimized away versus something that should be savoured and enjoyed. > In one world, Soylent could eventually dominate, in the other, it will remain a niche product because eating and food is too important too most, also culturally speaking.

This is a false dichotomy. I savor and enjoy food, but not all the food I eat. If every frozen burrito was replaced with Soylent, Soylent would be far more than a niche product, yet society would not have lost it's appreciation for the cultural, social, and culinary aspects of food.

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

#177

Post by deedubaya »

rubatuga wrote: post #155

Although I was initially brought onto the hype train by great marketing and the promises of health and complete nutrition, I realize that my initial reliance on Soylent was actually part of a deeper problem, brought on by problems such as depression and inappropriate time management. When in reality I should have had enough time to eat out or possibly even cook a meal, I found myself relying on Soylent. I didn't leav…

> Drinking Soylent was ruining my health.

Was Soylent ruining your health, or enabling you to let your health decline by isolating yourself? If the later, I don't think that's any reflection of the product itself.

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

#178

Post by atomical »

Afforess wrote: post #135

The crowds here saying that Soylent is "just" rebranded Ensure/Slimfast/etc sound like the same voices that said Dropbox was rebranded rsync/scp/ftp. The arguments are cookie-cutter and wrong for the same reasons they were with Dropbox.

They are wrong because of the marketing aspect at least. An expensive shoe can be the same as a cheap shoe in quality.

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

#179

Post by WindyCityBrew »

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…

Keto might not be for everyone, but unless you're a type 1 diabetic it's not nearly as dangerous as you're describing. It's just a low carb high fat.

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

#180

Post by matthewrudy »

I've never tried Soylent, but I do have to drink Ensure many times a day.

Ensure has a massive market, $billions in annual sales, and medically proven results.

The medical market is not where Soylent is going right now, But it is massive and proven.

If they could market to younger, hipper folks who've been prescribed Ensure, but would spend their own money for something nicer... That'd be me.

(BTW: I finally ordered some huel just now... Really sick of Ensure, will give that a try)

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