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The Biggest Pivot in YC History

blog.soylent.me

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Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#51

Post by 13b9f227ecf0 »

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…

Most people have lived very healthily on diets consisting 90%+ of various cereal or potato gruels. I just don't see how a high-tech powder really simplify things. You can almost live on mashed potatoes. That's barely more effort than buying and mixing this powder.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#52

Post by marknutter »

DanBC2 wrote: post #49
marknutter wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

This is ridiculous reasoning. Do you think every new food product that hits the market is tested for years beforehand to make sure it doesn't kill anybody? Soylent is just food, not some new medicine.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#53

Post by jacquesm »

marknutter wrote: post #48
jacquesm wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Let me quote you some of the soylent texts:

"Soylent - Free Your Body"

"Share it with your friends and family -- they like getting good nutrients too, we promise!"

"Soylent frees you from the time and money spent shopping, cooking and cleaning, puts you in excellent health"

A bunch of unsourced (anonymous) 'early adopters' raving about the product.

This is wrong at so many levels that a bit of skepticism to counter it is a good thing.

Disrupting eating, what could possibly go wrong?

Soylent is definitely arguing that people should switch wholesale to their diet, and that's a move that would require a lot of hoops to be jumped through before any kind of claims hinting in that direction could be made.

It's nothing to do with BMW vs KIA, it's everything to do with taking significant risks with other peoples' health.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#54

Post by jacquesm »

marknutter wrote: post #44
DanBC2 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Ri…

None of those start-ups have anywhere near the potential negative health impact that soylent has.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#55

Post by DanBC2 »

bluedino wrote: post #18
DoubleMalt wrote: post #9

While I appreciate the efficiency of this, I will happily stay a relic of the olden days, when we ate food not only for being able to hack the next day, but also took pleasure out of every meal. I am happy to spend a considerable part of my budget to procure groceries that have been grown in a sustainable way and meat from animals that were not industrially produced. I am also happy to spend considerable time prepari…

Soylent isn't necessarily about forcing you to eliminate food and preparation - it's about giving you the option. And like Rob did, you can still enjoy a regular dinner with friends, and just have it for breakfast or lunch. I love cooking, I love food, but it does take a lot of my time, of which after sleeping and working I only have 7 hours of the day. Other people can't or don't like cooking - what joy is cooking y…

I get all that. It's great.

It's a shame that they (and many of their prospective customers) appear to be unaware of the existing liquid feed products.

Eventually they claim they'll tailor the product for each individual. That'll be interesting. Maybe combine it with life planning for exercise and healthier eating? People could wean their selves off junk foods (subbing Soylent for those) and tapering in better food.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#56

Post by marknutter »

jacquesm wrote: post #53
marknutter wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Let me quote you some of the soylent texts: "Soylent - Free Your Body" "Share it with your friends and family -- they like getting good nutrients too, we promise!" "Soylent frees you from the time and money spent shopping, cooking and cleaning, puts you in excellent health" A bunch of unsourced (anonymous) 'early adopters' raving about the product. This is wrong at so many levels that a bit of skepticism to counter i…

If they truly are recommending people replace every meal - and I've not heard them explicitly say that - then I myself have misgivings. But that doesn't ruin the entire idea for me. I personally wouldn't replace every single meal and think there's a definite benefit to having access to a quick, nutritious meal when you need it. I doubt very many people outside of the founder himself will actually go on an all Soylent diet, so why bother attacking that premise?

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#57

Post by brudgers »

jacquesm wrote: post #39
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?

Because in this case there is a public service angle to making sure people make an informed decision? If you make a new A/B testing tool or a spiffy way to choose colours for a website nobody is going to wonder what the long term health consequences might be.

I'm not in the target demographic for products like Soylent. But someone in my social circle sells AdvoCare and others within that circle eat it up. Soylent is entering a market at least as accepted and established as the technologies mentioned in your comment.

Your logic can be applied in regard to the consequences of a whole host of technology ideas which involve personalizing user experience, providing relevant advertizing content or analyzing user behavior.

As a parent, I certainly wonder about the long-term consequences of online behavior, and expect they are of a far more irreversible nature.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#58

Post by kbutler »

JDGM wrote: post #13

It is not clear to me from the article their relationship with YC. It begins "YC accepted our original idea, to build affordable wireless networks for developing countries, for the summer 2012 batch", before explaining how that didn't work out and they moved to "working on a handful of projects. Sometimes collectively, sometimes independently". Then the article begins on Soylent and, aside from a few appearances from…

YMMV.

"It was delicious! I felt like I'd just had the best breakfast of my life. It tasted like a sweet, succulent, hearty meal in a glass, which is what it is, I suppose." --http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298

Gawker staff tried Soylent. Feedback was mixed. Including:

"[It] made me feel like joining a cult, after just one sip." "It tasted like when you're baking and you taste the ingredients even if there's not sugar or vanilla in there, you just have a compulsion to taste wet food." "My mouth tastes hot and like old cheese." "It tasted like someone wrung out a dishtowel into a glass." "It was great and I love it. I don't want to eat anymore." --http://gawker.com/we-drank-soylent-the-weird-food-of-the-fut...

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#59

Post by JDGM »

marknutter wrote: post #37
JDGM wrote: post #13

It is not clear to me from the article their relationship with YC. It begins "YC accepted our original idea, to build affordable wireless networks for developing countries, for the summer 2012 batch", before explaining how that didn't work out and they moved to "working on a handful of projects. Sometimes collectively, sometimes independently". Then the article begins on Soylent and, aside from a few appearances from…

> Delicious? I was under the impression Soylent was either fairly tasteless or mildly unpleasant-tasting. Is it really delicious? In what way? Why? How? It has quite a bit of sugar. Just go back and read the many articles that have been written by both the founders and the press.

Thanks.

I've just done a google and the only person I can find describing Soylent as 'delicious' in the first few hits is Rob himself, who even says "I'm not trying to make something delicious; there are already a lot of delicious things" - that's defending Soylent's taste in this Gawker article http://gawker.com/we-drank-soylent-the-weird-food-of-the-fut.... The piece contains the following:

"Soylent tastes like the homemade nontoxic Play-Doh you made, and sometimes ate, as a kid. Slightly sweet and earthy with a strong yeasty aftertaste."

"It tasted like when you're baking and you taste the ingredients even if there's not sugar or vanilla in there, you just have a compulsion to taste wet food."

"My mouth tastes hot and like old cheese."

"It tasted like someone wrung out a dishtowel into a glass."

As a health food Soylent had my curiosity. As a 'delicious' food it has my attention. However, that attention appears to have been misallocated.

Re: The Biggest Pivot in YC History

#60

Post by buro9 »

KC8ZKF wrote: post #30
buro9 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

I think that is a stretch, but he's not here for us to ask.
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