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Soylent’s Next Chapter
- neals 9y agoIs there a template out there for these types of "farewell letters", it feels like every leaving CEO, every startup that pulls the plug and every company that is bought by one of the big ones, these letters all have the same buildup and delivery.
- McMini 9y agoCould be a new business idea. Farewell Letters As A Service
- kdazzle 9y agoYou know, a similar service never really panned out. Poor execution, I hear. Bummer the site isn't up, but here's the YC thread: Shutdownify is Shutting Down - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10088229 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10088229
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- praneshp 9y agoI used to think the same about some things (like design docs). Then when I became slightly senior and started writing those, I realized that for such common things, following best practices can lead to template-like things (which is not bad, IMO. The goal of this letter or a design doc is to deliver information to you, constrained by company needs. Not to tickle your creativity or something).
- SOLAR_FIELDS 9y agoI understand the need to have departure announcements like this but still resent that this kind of boring corporate blather is the go-to thing to do in this situation. It’s a very robotic kind of action that dehumanizes everyone involved. The art of design is creativity, can’t we be a little more creative than shallow platitudes when we depart from something we built from the ground up?
- sandstrom 9y agoAndrews letter is original and funny: https://www.jottit.com/v5wux/ https://www.jottit.com/v5wux/
- praneshp 9y agoYes, it was. I happened to be interviewing at Groupon as a fresh faced new college grad that day and it was super weird.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 9y agoWhat a refreshing letter that serves as the perfect counter example to the above. Thanks for sharing. Just reading this kind of letter makes me have so much respect for this guy. This is the kind of human being and leader we should strive to be. Not because he failed, but because he showed humility and humanity and a touch of humor in his departure. If that isn’t the ultimate human response, I don’t know what is.
- madeofpalk 9y agohttps://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com
- Antimachides 9y agoThanks for the laughs.
- tzahola 9y agoReminds me of a nifty little tool I made as a teen: the breakup-text generator.
- Bartweiss 9y agoAs I read this, it's the standard shorthand for "after a product setback, the board got worried that I'm too eccentric and not managerial enough, so they brought in an MBA". I mean, that's a bit harsh, but I don't think I'm wrong - the dot com bubble produced so many of these letters that they really are down to a standard template. If this isn't a respectability move after Soylent's recently quality struggles, I'll... drink a bunch of Soylent, I guess.
- otakucode 9y agoAre you referring to the fake problems with the delicious snack bars? Or something else? I don't keep close track of Soylent as I only consume their products now and then (its shelf life is one of the things I love about it... and now I fear they'll cut that because it stunts repeat sales and encourages the kind of consumer they don't want) but that's the last I know of. Was bummed when they discontinued them, I ate loads of them and never had an issue. When they accepted returns and proceeded to eat them to prove they were fine, I appreciated that response and felt it the appropriate one but I know they backed off of that and apologized.
- kemiller 9y agoI can personally testify that the issues were not fake. It was awful. Maybe it was 1:1000 I don’t know but it totally happened.
- Bartweiss 9y agoNot particularly - I never kept up with the snack bar controversy enough to even know what the complaint was. I was thinking foremost of the mold issues with liquid Soylent. That's fairly old (12+ months?) and seems to be solved, but it's a long-term reputation problem in the same sense as Chipotle. Less crucially, I'm also thinking about the digestive issues people have reported - that some people talk about nausea and terrible gas when consuming lots of Soylent. Neither of those things seems to be a "our product is nonviable today" issue, but both have raised a specter among the people I talk to of "Soylent is weird and maybe not healthy". Swapping the CEO to someone more mainstream seems like one step towards fighting that perception.
- Lambent_Cactus 9y agoPicture of new CEO Bryan Crowley looks like a parody. And this line! > First of all, I want to take a moment to say hello and thank you to all of our Soylent friends out there who have helped turn Rob’s vision into one of the most talked about and fastest growing brands in the food and beverage industry!
- noncoml 9y agoReally? I thought he looks like an ad model. I guess you have to have good looks to become CEO these days.
- jeron 9y agorules 1 and 2
- walrus01 9y agoPicture of new CEO looks like somebody who a casting agent and makeup artist/wardrobe would cast as one of Russ Hanneman's friends on Silicon Valley. tres commas, baby
- Balgair 9y agoBoth pics look really heavily edited. I kinda expect some editing, but they went too far. That said, glad to see they have gone into caffeinated foods. Caffeine addiction should help them keep customers better. However, a 7-11 partnership is not as good, as 7-11 is pretty 'down market' for a 'high-tech' seeming brand.
- wlesieutre 9y agoIf you look around the edges of his fingers on the left, it appears the bag of soylent was edited into a photo of him holding something else. In the narrow gaps between the fingers on the right, you would also expect his fingers to cast shadows.
- GuiA 9y ago
- noncoml 9y agoProbably in the majority of the cases it makes sense for the founder to step aside for a new CEO, but I can only imagine how brave and difficult decision must be. Edit: Maybe some HN folks who have done the same can share their stories?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- codingdave 9y agoIt all depends on how you want to delegate the work. As companies grow, the founders will hit the limits of their own experience. They then need to hire help, and place that help within in the organization. Eventually, with success, they either step up and build the skills needed to succeed as CEO, or they realize they delegated everything to others. In that latter case, it makes sense to just step aside and let the team you built do the job they were hired to do, and give the CEO title to someone else. When the founder is still the largest shareholder, the true decision making authority does not change... but they can reserve it for special occasions, and the rest of the time get out of the way and let their team carry on.
- nojvek 9y agoIf the new CEO can uphold the vision that gives the founder time to do other things. Things he loves, work and think out of the box.
- tt 9y agoNever easy to do this. But most founders' mindset is to do whatever is best for the survivability and growth of the company. That's the path I took.
- dexterdog 9y agoI don't know if that's the mindset of most founders, but it is probably the mindset of most founders who have a company that is still alive.
- 9y ago
- ghostcluster 9y agoThe soy boy memes must have really got to him.
- exception_e 9y agoOh, come on. Don't downvote this. Had a big chuckle xD
- ivanbakel 9y agoI wonder if this was submitted as a grand announcement or as a case study. The idea of a drink having a "next chapter" is pretty comical. What radical twist is in beer's next chapter? More hops?
- evo_9 9y agoChapter 7?
- sudosteph 9y agoThat's cool and all, but maybe just focus on fixing the overly-tight bottle caps now? I can't drink it and buy more if I can't open it...
- fosk 9y agoThis is not how we do things these days - you will have an option to buy an accessory on every delivery for $9.99 extra.
- IncRnd 9y agoYou can actually use Amazon Opener instead of purchasing the Soylent holder and turner. Plus Amazon Opener can open Soylent using your phone app. Very convenient in my book to get Amazon Opener on Prime, since they give 24 months to pay @ $17/month, and you still get free app updates.
- rconti 9y agoCombined with the square bottles. Oh my god. The label just spins and the cap stays in place. Ugh. 3 shipments ago we got those crap new bottles. 2 shipments ago we got roundies again and my household rejoiced, hoping it was a sign that they had seen the light. Then a few days ago the most recent shipment arrived.. back to the square :(
- whoisjuan 9y agoHoly shit! for real. What's up with that?? It's so hard to open now.
- BlytheSchuma 9y agoI think you might be retarded and or have paper mache arms.
- zaarn 9y agoOverly tight caps are a problem in other places too, of course people assume you have a problem at first... until you hand over the affected bottle. I did have to use a clamp and a hammer once to get a coke bottle open.
- jamestimmins 9y agoThis reminds me of a comment (here on HN I believe) after David Sacks took over Zenefits after its compliance debacle: "When the old CEO writes the announcement letter, it was her choice. When the new CEO write the letter, it was the board's choice."
- hsod 9y agoWhat if, as in this case, they both wrote it?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jamestimmins 9y agoPer the spirit of the "rule" (whether it reflects reality is a different question), I'd say that what matters is whether or not the first CEO took part in the announcement at all. The fact that the new CEO also wrote something seems less significant.
- paxy 9y agoApart from a few special cases, it is always the board's choice.
- jamestimmins 9y agoIf you have experience/more info around this area I'd love to hear. Never having attended a board meeting, I'm reliant upon others' pithy quotes.
- paxy 9y agoIt is the board's job to appoint the CEO. There are subcommittees formed to do this, which the existing CEO usually stays away from, because in almost all cases there is a reason the CEO is stepping away/being made to step away in the first place. Heck even in Steve Jobs' retirement letter (https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2011/08/24Letter-from-Steve-Jobs https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2011/08/24Letter-from-Steve-J...) he didn't appoint Tim Cook CEO but rather "strongly recommended" him to the board.
- tejaswiy 9y agoWhat's going on with Soylent these days? They've been out for a while, so I'd be interested to learn about any (relatively) long term studies that came out about the health effects of a soylent-only diet.
- xeromal 9y agoNot sure if it's a meme, but reddit/hackernews seem to harp on soylent and prefer Ensure which seems to have more nutrients per meal.
- t0mbstone 9y agoEnsure is made with milk, though, which a lot of people are allergic to
- pandemicsyn 9y agoSo is Soylent occasionally - https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls/ucm554489.htm https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls/ucm554489.htm
- dragonwriter 9y agoMilk is a common allergen, especially among young children, but Soylent is also made with common food allergens (notably, soy protein and gluten), so on balance that issue is kind of a wash (or, maybe, advantage to Ensure), though specific users may avoid one or the other based on their specific allergies and conditions.
- josephst18 9y agoAnd the disclaimer to the meme: it’s worth pointing out that Soylent Drink gets about 2.5% of its calories from added sugar while Ensure Original gets 27% of its calories from added sugars.
- josephst18 9y agoCorrection: neglected to multiply by 4 kcal/g for the sugar in Soylent. Correct number is 9% calories from sugar in bottled Soylent.
- Justsignedup 9y ago"Soylent's CEO is replaced." Saved you a click, and reading some PR mumbo jumbo.
- username223 9y agoYou can imagine the company selling bags of nutrient paste being led by one of these stock photos: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Bryan+Crowley https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Bryan+Crowley I don't really care which.
- superquest 9y agoProbably a good thing for Soylent and the former CEO. The guy always seemed like the kind of eccentric dynamo who excels at starting companies, rather than running them.
- glibgil 9y agoExcels?
- superquest 9y agohttps://www.google.com/search?q=excels https://www.google.com/search?q=excels
- mathgeek 9y agoI was hoping this would be some new product rather than just a change of leadership.
- wmil 9y agoCtrl+F Canada And crap. Looks like I'm not going to get more Coffiest any time soon.
- xupybd 9y agoI've been waiting a long time for them to ship to New Zealand. Still no option :(.
- aunty_helen 9y agoI've been getting Aussielent after the local brand Sipreme uh... imploded. Worth checking out and is actually slightly cheaper.
- xupybd 9y agoThank you madam prime minister
- pmarreck 9y agoThere’s a lot of valueless appeals to taste/opinion in this discussion... possibly the least informative commentary I’ve ever seen on HN
- resfirestar 9y agoThat's just every Soylent thread, or more broadly every nutrition related thread. It's one of those things everyone thinks they know a lot about, whether from investing a lot of time and money into a fad diet or just from watching a youtube video with more emotional than scientific content. Since small changes in diet don't really affect the health of most people when compared to the sum of everything else, I imagine we tend to get a lot of meaningless confirmation, too. One time I gave up on eating vegetarian because I was feeling worse. So I wrote off the idea of vegetarian meals for years. Looking back on it, the problem was probably more about my extremely high stress levels at the time than the food.
- deeth_starr_v 9y agoAlso, being vegetarian doesn't mean eating healthy. I was vegetarian in college and ate tons of fries and quesadillas. I eat meat now but try to eat mostly vegetables.
- pmarreck 9y agoI'm sure misattribution happens all the time in exactly the ways you mention. Did you get well because you popped Vitamin C's, or because you would have gotten well in the same timeframe anyway?
- BigJono 9y agoYou're not wrong. I come in here knowing barely anything about Soylent and it's just full of people shitting on it without any further explanation :/ Not overly useful.
- cphuntington97 9y agoSoylent Food Bars were the only vegan food bars on the market. Now they're gone. Please bring them back.
- oopsies49 9y agoSoylent has been unavailable in Canada since October: https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005267426 https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005267426
- Waterluvian 9y agoYeah. And I'm running out of my stash. It's what I have at lunch when I'm not interested in walking away from my code. I'm not even romantically interested in Soylent. I will use any brand. It just has to have a low glycemic index. =(
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoI would suggest KETOCHOW if you are looking for a lower glycemic index. Also I laughed out loud at your typo. Please don't edit it.
- swozey 9y agoYep, another for ketochow. Love it. I need to get back into my keto lifestyle. It definitely simplified things.
- Waterluvian 9y agoI explicitly put "romantically" :) I meant that I don't have a, "I'm a Soylent fanboy" attitude.
- username223 9y agoMaybe we can start an illegal barter economy: Soylent for low-cost prescription drugs.
- ClassyJacket 9y agoStrange - seeing as the problem was that it doesn't meet the legal requirements for a meal replacement, could they not just slap a different label on it that says "tasty shake (not a meal replacement)"?
- dschuetz 9y agoAw, not soylent again! I was wondering why this is being linked on HN, but then I reminded myself that Soylent is supposed to be food hacking. Great... Scott...
- cocktailpeanuts 9y agofunction bullshit_translator(post) { if (/(next chapter|incredible journey)/.test(post.title)) { if (/new ceo/.test(post.content)) { return "I'm stepping down as CEO"; } else if (/joining/.test(post.content)) { return "We ran out of money and our VCs saved us and themselves by acq-hiring us to the company." + "Even though we made 0 money from this and will be stuck with this company for next 2 years for vesting," + "this is the part where you say 'Congrats!" + "so that I can call my self a 'serial entrepreneur' and put 'my company got acquired by XXX corp' on my resume" } } }
- tomasien 9y agoSoylent is definiteeellllly not out of money
- cocktailpeanuts 9y agothat's not how this code works
- spamlord 9y agoThe plant estrogens in this soy filled pseudo-nutrition are harmful for men's health. No idea why dudes drink this stuff.
- patrickyeon 9y agoIt's neat to look at the two pictures: Rob is holding up a bag of Soylent, presenting it to the reader, bag in focus Rob considerably out of focus. Background is hard to make out, maybe a lag, kitchen, or kitchen-lab? Bryan is sitting at a table, clearly in a situation where he's "on display" (jacket, microphone, earpiece), face well-lit. The product is in front of him, almost as out of focus as Rob is in the first photo. In fact, although the bottles are branded, you can more easily make out the Soylent logo on Bryan's shirt even though it's folded than you can on the bottles. I'm just saying, if this were a movie I know what the message the director/DP would be trying to convey is: Rob was all about being the CEO who invented Soylent and brought it to the world. He makes a bag of powder the star of the photo of himself. Now it's Bryan's time, where the focus of the CEO's office is the CEO: Bryan. Of course, this is not a movie. They're probably saying a lot less than that with their photo choices in real life.
- rexreed 9y agothese are self-selected pics to show off the new CEO and de-highlighting the founder. There's nothing subtle about it.
- Balgair 9y agoThis add-copy would be a great example piece in a business-psych class. The poor photoshopping aside, the messages that the pictures convey are clear once pointed out. Honestly, good work on the designer of the blog-posting, they should be looking for a better job with this level of expertise.
- modfodder 9y agoAs a video editor, I'd say you are close. imho, to me it doesn't say that Rob was making his leadership of the company all about the product (you'd really have to go back and look at past photos to see if this is true) but more that he is now fading into the background of the company, while Bryan is "focused" on future of the company (looking towards the viewers right which is typically the future). Although many decisions like that in films often tend to be happy accidents (or subconscious choices), it is pretty clear that they are deemphasizing Rob.
- 9y ago
- crsv 9y agoTLDR: Transitioning from lovable nerd as CEO to oddly-similar-to-Tony-Robbins CEO. On the surface, about as appealing as the thought of drinking Soylent.
- kirykl 9y agoDistribution is really key for their business, and refrigerated shelf space is pricey and hard. If an industry insider is needed to make it happen faster, go for it
- skybrian 9y agoMaybe it will help that Soylent doesn't need to be refrigerated before opening? Though that might be the preferred way to drink it, like soda.
- zanedb 9y agoThis is only semi-related, but is it possible to order a sample of Soylent? They ship in bulk on Amazon and I just want to try it (maybe 1 bottle per flavor) before buying an entire set.
- unobtaniumstool 9y agoThey make a variety pack, but it's only available with the caffeinated flavors.
- zanedb 9y agoDo you have a link to the variety pack? There used to be one on Amazon but I can't find it anymore.
- hartzell 9y agoHere's a link to the 12-bottle variety pack of the caffeinated flavors: https://www.amazon.com/Soylent-Replacement-Drink-Variety-Bottles/dp/B073WW761F/ https://www.amazon.com/Soylent-Replacement-Drink-Variety-Bot... There are ASIN's for smaller packages (e.g. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B01MTBJCR6/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B01MTBJCR6/) but the pricing isn't rational.
- durbin 9y agoYou can get one from a local 7-11 or store in your area. Currently just in California and Texas but should be in most locations shortly. https://www.soylent.com/stores/ https://www.soylent.com/stores/
- bactrian 9y agoGood time to start a Soylent competitor if you’ve been thinking of it.
- justinator 9y ago(1 Buy generic baby formula in bulk (2 Rebrand it (3 ??? (4 Profit!
- orthecreedence 9y agoHuel just came to the US. I haven't tried Soylent, but I have to say I really love Huel. Keeps me full, no stomach issues, the vanilla just tastes like lightly sweetened oatmeal. Plus it's vegan, gluten-free, non-gmo, low fodmap, etc etc. You'd have to try REALLY hard to find a stomach condition that wouldn't allow Huel.
- RepressedEmu 9y agoI have a bag of Huel in my kitchen gathering dust because I just couldn't get past the consistency of it(the little chunks of oats or whatever). Also the name reminds me of "Human Gruel" meanwhile everyone I say it to immediately thinks "Human Fuel", which I think is amusing. I guess my brain burned the connection to those two words after trying the stuff for a couple weeks!
- orthecreedence 9y agoI actually don't mind the chunks, but I am probably the least picky eater I know. That said, I have gotten to the point where I can mix it to a fairly uniform consistency (just shaking a lot and doing the right ratios of liquid to powder) so maybe it just takes practice.
- RepressedEmu 9y agoI think the chunks definitely help with being able to feel very full after drinking it. Maybe I'm just not letting it mix/soften well enough before going for it. I'll do more experimenting!
- samnwa 9y agoI hate Soylent so much. If you like the idea of eating efficiently, just get some whey protein and possibly a veggie shake mix. Oh wait, that's not good enough. I need to seem hip, cool, and into the latest fad diet plan.
- unholiness 9y agoSoylent is an extremely convenient meal that doesn't leave me feeling groggy or worrying about being nutritionally deficient in any area. That's real value. By contrast, replacing a full meal with whey protein takes a stance on what you should and shouldn't be eating vs general dieticians' recommendations (and the FDA's). I wouldn't recommend replacing most meals with either one, but if I had to pick the fad diet, it'd be whey.
- justinator 9y ago* Soylent is an extremely convenient meal that doesn't leave me feeling groggy or worrying about being nutritionally deficient in any area. That's real value.* Marketing 101: make people believe there's something wrong with what they are doing, then sell them the solution.
- unholiness 9y ago"What I am doing" generally costs me either half an hour or 8 bucks. There's nothing wrong with it other than one of those two things.
- zzzzzzzza 9y agoRight now what kind of whey protein, and which veggie shake mix? Do I need to buy a blender? It's more complicated. Hate is a strong word already. I don't think anyone (okay maybe a very tiny minority in sv or something where cool is defined differently from everywhere else) drinking soylent is trying to be hip or cool. Do you hate people trying paleo diets? How about gluten free? I doubt it.
- 9y ago
- jbergens 9y agoFirst thing for new CEO, add more countries. Last time I checked they still missed a number of countries including Sweden. Strange that they couldn't fix this in their first two years.