Slimfast For Nerds

If you haven’t heard of the flavorless food replacement drink Soylent yet, you will soon. Brain child of software engineer Rob Rhinehard, the nutrition drink is gaining popularity among the startup crowd who are looking for a fast, cheap way to ingest their daily nutrients.

While a tasteless, beige shake doesn’t sound like a smart investment, the company recently received $20 million in funding to expand its operations and fulfill its enormous backlog of orders. 

That’s right- a backlog of orders. The company currently has a four to five month waiting list for new customers to receive their starter kits. 

The whole concept may seem mind-boggling, especially as more and more consumers seem to be shifting their preferences toward companies that offer organic, fresh food offerings. But you need only to Google ‘Soylent' to see why investors might see the company as the next big thing.

Soylent has a community of devoted followers who are interested in the nerdy side of food. Instead of following mainstream trends, Soylent consumers are interested in using science to improve nutrition. Chris Dixon, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the firm responsible for the bulk of Soylent’s most recent funding, compared Soylent to GoPro GPRO in terms of community. 

In any case, Soylent is planning to use its influx of cash to expand its manufacturing and shipping capacity and make the product more available to the masses. Rhinehard also wants to invest in taking the drink’s $3 dollar price tag dramatically lower, saying that the company aims to “make food so cheap only the rich will cook.”