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The Biggest Pivot in YC History

blog.soylent.me

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Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#41

Post by dpcx »

adlpz wrote: post #23
ig1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

Why does everyone seem to think that Soylent is "for every meal, everyday"? Rob has stated several times that he still eats out with friends occasionally. Soylent is just his way of getting through food preparation ad nauseam.

Also, it doesn't have a single ingredient list. It's been stated several times that the measurements would be modified according to each individual that would use Soylent.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#42

Post by DanBC2 »

marknutter wrote: post #29
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?

To disrupt the industry Soylent need to know what that industry is.

So far I haven't seen any sign that they have any idea about what going on in that domain.

There's a bunch of stuff about "Hey! What if food was a simple easy liquid?" - well, fine, except that's been in existence for many years. There's some stuff about "optimal health" - which is a bit scary when you have a bunch of people with (as far as we can see) zero medical knowledge, zero dietary knowledge, and zero nutritional knowledge. Apart from what they've got from Wikipedia. And then there's the "Soylent will feed the world" - except we've been trying to feed the world with similar products for years and there's still a problem.

For the world hunger stuff: Who are they selling to? Charities and NGOs? The WFP and UNICEF? Will they just sell the raw product, or will they sell distribution too? What makes them better than whoever the WFP / UNICFEC are buying from?

This is why it doesn't feel disruptive. Most disruptive companies see what other people are doing, and target the inefficiencies or target what people want done differently.

Soylent claims to be different, but is the same as existing products (but with much bolder claims and much less quality control).

Everything I've seen with Soylent so far feels very rushed, and not thought-through. MVPs are fine for most things, but I'm pretty cautious about what I live on.

Most YC startups are not going to cause you direct physical harm. Soylent might. And I'd be fine with that if they had stuck to the original self-experimental approach. But they're not. They saying, clearly, unambiguously, that the product is tested and is safe and is safe for everyone.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#43

Post by DanBC2 »

marknutter wrote: post #40

It seems I'm late to the thread but I want everyone to realize that you don't need to drink Soylent or any other meal replacement solution for every meal . Attacking the idea of meal replacement on that assumption is attacking the straw man. The founder of Soylent only replaced every single meal of his to test out the product, not as a recommendation for how it should be used. If you enjoy preparing every meal you ea…

> It's not going to kill you, or mess up your health

How do you know?

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#44

Post by marknutter »

DanBC2 wrote: post #42
marknutter wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

To disrupt the industry Soylent need to know what that industry is. So far I haven't seen any sign that they have any idea about what going on in that domain. There's a bunch of stuff about "Hey! What if food was a simple easy liquid?" - well, fine, except that's been in existence for many years. There's some stuff about "optimal health" - which is a bit scary when you have a bunch of people with (as far as we can se…

The founders of Uber were not experts in the public transportation space when they started their company. The founders of AirBnB were not experts in the hospitality industry wen they started their company. The founders of Hipmonk were not experts in travel planning when they started their company. The founders of Warby-Parker were not eyewear or vision experts when they started their company. The founder of Oculus Rift wasn't an expert in VR and head-mounted displays when he started his company. And so on..

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#46

Post by marknutter »

DanBC2 wrote: post #43
marknutter wrote: post #40

It seems I'm late to the thread but I want everyone to realize that you don't need to drink Soylent or any other meal replacement solution for every meal . Attacking the idea of meal replacement on that assumption is attacking the straw man. The founder of Soylent only replaced every single meal of his to test out the product, not as a recommendation for how it should be used. If you enjoy preparing every meal you ea…

> It's not going to kill you, or mess up your health How do you know?

Give me a break. People have gone on crazier diets for a lot longer than this guy has and not died. Steve Jobs famously went on an all fruit diet for years and did not die as a result. There are people out there who literally eat nothing but McDonalds for breakfast lunch and dinner and it takes decades for them to die. We are more resilient than you're giving us credit for.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#47

Post by DanBC2 »

dpcx wrote: post #41
adlpz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

Why does everyone seem to think that Soylent is "for every meal, everyday"? Rob has stated several times that he still eats out with friends occasionally. Soylent is just his way of getting through food preparation ad nauseam. Also, it doesn't have a single ingredient list. It's been stated several times that the measurements would be modified according to each individual that would use Soylent.

> Why does everyone seem to think that Soylent is "for every meal, everyday"?

Because they're selling it as that. Perhaps Soylent could consider reading these threads and improving their website information?

>Also, it doesn't have a single ingredient list. It's been stated several times that the measurements would be modified according to each individual that would use Soylent.

This version of the product comes, I think, in just two forms, Male and Female. Ingredients are crucial. (Perhaps a legal requirement? I don't know about the US market.) Certainly a list of ingredients for the base product is possible.

It'll be interesting to see how Soylent do the tailoring to each individual. It'll be interesting to see what information they use to do that modification.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#48

Post by marknutter »

jacquesm wrote: post #38
mike_esspe wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I eat every meal with at least one other person, and usually with at least three and if I were to be alone and thought about eating as 'fuelling up for the next round' I'd slow down and take out my phone to invite someone to have dinner with me. Friends are always welcome to eat at our house, and to stay if they want to. Plenty of HN'ers have already found out that that is not idle talk.

So Soylent isn't for you. Why even bother criticizing it? It'd be like a BMW owner criticizing a Kia owner for choosing an inferior driving experience. There are people out there who don't have the luxury of eating every single meal with a friend and for whom food isn't such a religious experience. There's clearly a market need for a quick, nutritious meal.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#49

Post by DanBC2 »

marknutter wrote: post #46
DanBC2 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not going to kill you, or mess up your health How do you know?

Give me a break. People have gone on crazier diets for a lot longer than this guy has and not died. Steve Jobs famously went on an all fruit diet for years and did not die as a result. There are people out there who literally eat nothing but McDonalds for breakfast lunch and dinner and it takes decades for them to die. We are more resilient than you're giving us credit for.

So you don't know? Yet you're happy for them to sell it as safe for everyone, as providing optimal nutrition, as bring people to perfect health, as being tested, when we don't know if any of that is true? (And we know the tested part is a lie).
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