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The Biggest Pivot in YC History

blog.soylent.me

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Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#21

Post by DanBC2 »

Soylent have some fierce competition.

Liquid feeding is not new. Many companies do it already.

Liquid feeding for developing world also isn't new. There are a number of foods developed especially for that market.

Here are some of the competitor products:

(http://ensure.com/) Ensure

(https://www.nutricia.co.uk/fortisip//) Fortisip

(http://www.complan.com/) Complan

(http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/abbott-brands) Abbott Nutrition Brands

These are big companies. They have dieticians and nutritionists working for them. They have established manufacturing channels sorted out. They supply a known, quality product to a variety of sources. They have existing contracts with big customers. They have expertise in selling to healthcare markets.

Note also the caution they use when describing their products - they don't claim that these are suitable for anyone. They certainly don't suggest that you stay on a liquid diet if you don't need it. They strongly suggest doctor's supervision.

Soylent claim to be interested in the developing world markets. About 20% of the world live on less than $1.25 per day. (http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home)) And the main ingredient of Soylent is water, supplied by the user. About one billion people don't have access to clean drinking water. (http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/mdg1/en/index.htm...)

The World Food Program and UNICEF have some information. (https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/special-nutritional-products) -- see how cheap they're aiming for?

It's your body, and what you do with it is up to you. But Soylent are being irresponsible by selling this product as "safe", for everyone, as "tested", when it hasn't had any testing, and we don't know that it is safe, and we do know that it is not safe for everyone.

And this is the company selling most of the ingredients for these various nutri-stuffs (http://www.dsm.com/en_US/foodandbeverages/public/home/pages/...)

Good Luck and everything, but I don't think they have any clue what they're doing, or who the established competitors are.

(Using secondary account because I'd set noprocast a bit too long)

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#22

Post by brandoncarl »

A few points of warning to the creators of Soylent:

1. Chewing is important. It helps trigger the brain to stimulate the digestive process. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7568724.stm

2. "Meal time" appears to be an important social construct. For example, the single strongest predictor of school achievement scores was the frequency and duration of family meals.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/73393...

3. Scientists are just now discovering the importance of bacteria in food consumption. Bacteria can be difficult due to the need for some of them to be refrigerated. NYT ran a great article recently on the problems with baby formula (arguably an infant-stage competitor :)).

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-...

4. Finally, getting the right mix of nutrients can be fairly difficult. I was surprised to find the "dark side of antioxidants". Thus far, in the studies I've read, it has been extremely difficult to "beat" a "whole" foods diet.

http://bigthink.com/devil-in-the-data/the-dark-side-of-antio...

No kickbacks, but the best "drink" I've found in this arena so far has been Xymogen's i5: https://www.xymogen.com/products/product-detail.aspx?pid=78. I use it for reasons alluded to below in background.

Background: wife is a food and travel writer. Some major life hurdles have required us to study and be extremely cognizant of what we eat.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#23

Post by adlpz »

ig1 wrote: post #14
adlpz wrote: post #5

There has been a lot of criticism around here about this Soylent thing, and it's understandable: it's dangerous to trust your health to some guys without any medical or nutritional background. But I am really happy to hear they are getting YC support and funding, now they will be able to develop it further with good input from specialists. This could become something really big.

Do you have a professional nutritionist who designs every meal for you, or do you rely upon restaurants and self-made foods ? With any diet there's risks, assuming it's not missing any major dietary component it's unlikely to be any unhealthier than your average fast-food diet.

Well, no. As during any week I eat from several different restaurants, grocery stores and supermarkets, with a large variety of products and cooking styles, it is largely more unlikely that I'm missing any important part of my nutrition.

Soylent is a single product, from a single supplier, with a single ingredient list, for every meal, everyday.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#25

Post by bradfa »

So what's to come of the white space networking work?

At $70 BOM cost, it failed, but at $15 BOM cost it might succeed. Why not put the work into the public domain and let someone else do good with it?

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#26

Post by jaibot »

jacquesm wrote: post #16

Food is more than just nutrition, food is a way to share time with friends and family, to connect. To actually chew your food is good, not a waste of time, it also slows you down to the point where you appreciate the taste of it and the work that went into making it. You mess with such mechanisms at your peril. Eating is not about 'efficiency' unless you're an astronaut or a person doing a round-the-world flight in s…

Right, I think the Soylent people mostly agree with you. The thing is, they say, most people aren't having 21 emotionally enriching delicious meals a week. Sometimes you are just eating to get things done, and that's where you throw in a soylent and then stop thinking about it.

Beautiful artwork is important, but sometimes you just want to paint a wall white so you can get on with doing other important things.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#27

Post by mike_esspe »

jacquesm wrote: post #16

Food is more than just nutrition, food is a way to share time with friends and family, to connect. To actually chew your food is good, not a waste of time, it also slows you down to the point where you appreciate the taste of it and the work that went into making it. You mess with such mechanisms at your peril. Eating is not about 'efficiency' unless you're an astronaut or a person doing a round-the-world flight in s…

Do you share every meal with friends? How do you arrange the invitations?

It seems, that soylent is for time, when you eat in solitude, and for me it's the majority of my dinners.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#28

Post by yesimahuman »

adlpz wrote: post #5

There has been a lot of criticism around here about this Soylent thing, and it's understandable: it's dangerous to trust your health to some guys without any medical or nutritional background. But I am really happy to hear they are getting YC support and funding, now they will be able to develop it further with good input from specialists. This could become something really big.

Just to clarify: they aren't getting YC support and funding for this idea, but rather they were in YC for their previous idea and then pivoted to Soylent later.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#29

Post by marknutter »

DanBC2 wrote: post #21

Soylent have some fierce competition. Liquid feeding is not new. Many companies do it already. Liquid feeding for developing world also isn't new. There are a number of foods developed especially for that market. Here are some of the competitor products: ( http://ensure.com/ ) Ensure ( https://www.nutricia.co.uk/fortisip// ) Fortisip ( http://www.complan.com/ ) Complan ( http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/abbott-brand…

Why doesn't anyone post stuff like this when other startups are trying to disrupt well established industries?

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#30

Post by KC8ZKF »

buro9 wrote: post #15
arkitaip wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share your worries but "I will happily stay a relic of the olden days, when we ate food not only for being able to hack the next day" has never really been true. It's only very recently -- say last 100 years -- that people in the West have been able to eat for pleasure on a more massive scale instead of eating so you don't starve or get enough energy to work. Things like meat or variety in diet were mostly reserved…

Epicurus might disagree with your assertion that the pleasure of eating is only a recent thing or the fare only of the rich. Although he's much misunderstood upon the layman as meaning luxurious foods and pleasures, it's understood he really meant to enjoy basic foods (usually grown in the communal garden) amongst friends. Soylent would be great for many reasons; third world, developing world, a trip to Mars. But I a…

For Epicurus, pleasure was the absence of discomfort. The pleasure of eating, for example, came from the fact that he was no longer hungry. His feasts were famously simple. Vegetables and cheese.

Epicurus, if he were alive today, might be an early adopter of Soylent.

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