Admit It, That Protein Shake Is Basically Soylent

Soylent was once Silicon Valley's most mocked dietary experiment — a beige slurry of oat flour, maltodextrin, brown-rice protein, and canola oil that let tech bros skip the inconvenience of actual food. For a moment in the mid-2010s, venture capitalists poured money in, turning it into a $170 million brand. Then it became a dystopian punchline, and by 2023 it was sold off for a fraction of its peak valuation.

But here's the twist: Soylent didn't fail because the idea was wrong. It failed because it arrived too early — and was run by founders who, by their own admission, were 'always trying to be a little bit too clever.' Co-founder John Coogan, now a tech podcaster, chalks the collapse up largely to inexperience rather than a flawed premise.

The premise, it turns out, was exactly right. The post-food future Soylent promised has quietly arrived — just wearing better branding. Fairlife protein shakes have become Coca-Cola's fastest-growing U.S. brand. Huel, a direct Soylent competitor, just sold to Danone for $1 billion. Shelves are now packed with nutrition drinks from Rebbl, Orgain, Koia, Oikos, and a parade of other companies with conspicuously vowel-deficient names. The Soylent Guy wasn't a fringe weirdo — he was just ahead of the curve. Now everyone is him.