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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

#251

Post by CPLX »

jonknee wrote: post #138
CPLX wrote: post #123

Earlier 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.

I mean, it kind of does.

For example, the day they close the round of funding they will presumably have $50MM in their checking account, so it would be a quite remarkable situation indeed if their actual value on that day was below that number.

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

#252

Post by wattson12 »

kunaalarya wrote: post #232
jefftk wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slimfast has 4x as much sugar as Soylent (per-calorie). To get 2000 calories from Slimfast you'd be getting 180g sugar, while with Soylent it would be 45g. Now 45g is a little higher than recommended, but 180g is way too high. http://d8m5oga7foiu.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/1... http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-drink-nutrition-facts-e...

not sure where you got the slimfast nutritional info but they have 1g of sugar: http://slimfast.com/advanced-nutrition/#shakes if it had that much sugar, it wouldve never gained a reputation for losing weight.

looks like the "original" versions have much more sugar: http://slimfast.com/original/#shakes

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

#253

Post by maxerickson »

kunaalarya wrote: post #232
jefftk wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slimfast has 4x as much sugar as Soylent (per-calorie). To get 2000 calories from Slimfast you'd be getting 180g sugar, while with Soylent it would be 45g. Now 45g is a little higher than recommended, but 180g is way too high. http://d8m5oga7foiu.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/1... http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-drink-nutrition-facts-e...

not sure where you got the slimfast nutritional info but they have 1g of sugar: http://slimfast.com/advanced-nutrition/#shakes if it had that much sugar, it wouldve never gained a reputation for losing weight.

Original vs Advanced (click the buttons on their website to find Original).

The Original I checked had 18 grams of sugar.

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

#254

Post by greenshackle2 »

reilly3000 wrote: post #200
rubatuga wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating is a complex process, usually intertwined with social interactions, stimulation of multiple sensory organs, and activation of jaw muscles and blood flow. I think by short circuiting many of those processes, along with possibly the negative nutritional aspects of Soylent and my mental state back then, I was suffering as a result.

Spot on. I don't know why we would apply reductionism something as pleasurable and healthful as food.

> I don't know why we would apply reductionism something as pleasurable and healthful as food.

I applaud you for admitting your ignorance. Let me give you some reasons why:

I know a guy who doesn't enjoy eating. For him it's always been a chore. He has a poor sense of smell, it's surely related. It works for him.

I drink soylent as an alternative to eating out on my own, which is an expensive and unhealthy habit I have. It does not replace 1) eating out with friends or 2) cooking at home.

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

#256

Post by deeth_starr_v »

giaour wrote: post #198
mojowo11 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is kinda silly. Like, the problem here isn't Soylent, it's that you were depressed. And the problem with your friend using Soylent to watch her weight isn't Soylent, it's that she ate more of other crap when she drank Soylent as a meal replacement. I drink Soylent occasionally -- once every two or three weeks, maybe. Normally I use it if I know I'm going to eat a huge dinner, or if I ate a giant lunch an…

The founder of Soylent has repeatedly pushed his product as a solution for world hunger, unhealthy diets in the first world, and poor time management. I think critiquing the product on those terms is fair.

Agreed, while the intentions of Soylent are probably sincere, when I first heard about it my response was "nope nope nope".

My parents were hippies and we grew/raised most of our food when I was a kid. But my grandparents had embraced the new space-age diet: margarine in place of butter, tang instead of orange juice, kraft instead of cheese, etc. I thought it tasted awful compared to real food.

As we have found out, some food choices like trans fats have an impact on health. There's really too much noise in the nutrition related data to draw wide ranging conclusions. But buyer beware.

For me I think the safest option is the "whole foods" (Polan) route. For me it would be "eat what your grand-grand parents ate". I was even a vegetarian and eating fake-meats and then realized I was just eating chemicals. So I started eating meat again.

Edit: Changed wording on first sentence

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

#257

Post by salmonet »

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…

I guess it depends how you use it. I keep it in my car as a replacement for fast food when I'm short on time and I'm healthier overall

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

#258

Post by callmeed »

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.

Ok, so what are those reasons exactly?

I actually don't believe your analogy holds. My mom uses Dropbox but she would never use rsync. But my mom can drive to Target or open her Amazon app and buy Ensure just as easily as she can order Soylent.

I do think Soylent is just rebranded Ensure/Slimfast and there's nothing wrong with that. For the most part, Ensure targets baby boomers, Slimfast targets gen-xers or people who want to lose weight, and Soylent targets millenials/professionals. Again, nothing wrong with it (so long as you don't act like Soylent is some revolutionary/brave-new-world product).

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

#259

Post by greenshackle2 »

Dangeranger wrote: post #69
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.

This is my take as well. I don't see an innate advantage to Soylent over existing meal replacements like SlimFast. While Soylent has struggled with quality control, their competitors have been producing high volumes of equivalent products for many years, at better prices, and better name recognition to the american population outside of SV.

> I don't see an innate advantage to Soylent

> equivalent

Then you havn't looked very hard. Some of us have gone so far as to look at the nutritional label and list of ingredients.

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

#260

Post by Greenisus »

VikingCoder wrote: post #146
ceejayoz wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There is a massive amount of info supporting ketogenic diets and fasting. I'd recommend you look into the Keto Talk and Fasting Talk podcasts and read Jimmy Moore's books: Keto Clarity and the Complete Guide to Fasting. Also, congrats on your progress and keep it up! I dropped over 60 pounds (started at 215 lbs, now at 152 and very lean) doing what you're doing.

But ceejayoz's advice is good advice... always do your own research!

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