Skipping lunch and dinner turned him into a millionaire

by Angelica Basile - 2016.09.28

Soylent is much more than the usual “meal-in-a-bottle” remedy to skipping meals for those who are obsessed with dieting. According to its inventor, it is nothing less than the food of the future: more liquid and less solid. In fact, this chemical mix of minerals and carbohydrates, vitamins and protein made in USA, with a market that has exceeded $ 100 million, has found its way half way around the world in 3 years as an alternative to lunch or dinner (in powder to dissolve in water).



Everything started in 2013, when Robert Rhinehart, at the time a simple, 24-year old, newly graduated engineer who had moved from Atlanta to San Francisco with one aim: to create a start-up, software business, found himself lacking the essential funds. He risked losing his dream and ending up in poverty. It’s then that he decided that the only way to make it was to save on everything. Especially on the things that weighed down his pockets the most – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Using internet, he researched ingredients that, when mixed together, could provide him with the nutrients that were necessary for basic survival. He purchased all of them, and in what seemed more like a laboratory then a kitchen, he created the perfect mix. Hence, Soylent, was born, an acronym in English that represented this union of soybeans and lentils with beet oil and algae added. Such is the magic of this post-modern elixir.



The experiment far exceeded his expectations. The enterprising engineer, in fact, was able to reduce his food budget from $640 to $50 and in addition, he noticed positive effects on his health. “My skin was clearer, my teeth whiter, my hair thicker”. And that’s when he decided to share his discovery with the world, with a blog on February 13th, 2013, that was titled “How I stopped eating food”. That brief diary telling how he lived his first 30 days on Soylent received hundreds of shared comments, and in only a few days, went viral.



That is how the luckiest food crowd-funding campaign in history was born.: $3 million in a few months. At the end of 2013, he received authorization of the Food And Drug Administration, and Soylent, inexpensive ($2.75 per portion and about $65 a week for 3 daily meals), with a taste similar to pancakes, hit the market. One year later, over 25 million Americans and Canadians have purchased it. And it is a trend that is still growing. But the real question is “are we really entering the Era of Liquid Food”? For Mr. Soylent, the answer is a resounding, YES: “soon, we will begin to feed ourselves just like a car, regardless of what time it is and when the tank is empty, we can fill up again.”And the drink is included!