This is a good point, thanks. I don't think Soylent has ongoing problems, and while I had the mold in mind Rhinehart seems to have done well with that.
My thought was less that Soylent had a consumer confidence problem, and more that Rosa Labs may have a board confidence problem. Meaning the 12 month old issues still floating around, but also meaning that Rhinehart has magnets in his fingertips and is generally a "weird futuristic tech dude" stereotype. That was great for getting Soylent going, and I expect Rhinehart will keep coming up with fascinating new stuff. But if the board is looking for mainstream appeal and enormous returns, they'd do better with a "nutrition on the go" image than a "posthuman meal replacement" image. And part of that would be moving Rhinehart to product, where he'll shine regardless, and out of the spotlight, where he might be image-incompatible.
It's the same move as something like Good Day Chocolate; they're basically a bog-standard nootropics company, but they put the stuff in chocolate instead of pills and packaged it for the Whole Foods checkout line. I'm not sure that's the goal with Soylent, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was an attempt.
My thought was less that Soylent had a consumer confidence problem, and more that Rosa Labs may have a board confidence problem. Meaning the 12 month old issues still floating around, but also meaning that Rhinehart has magnets in his fingertips and is generally a "weird futuristic tech dude" stereotype. That was great for getting Soylent going, and I expect Rhinehart will keep coming up with fascinating new stuff. But if the board is looking for mainstream appeal and enormous returns, they'd do better with a "nutrition on the go" image than a "posthuman meal replacement" image. And part of that would be moving Rhinehart to product, where he'll shine regardless, and out of the spotlight, where he might be image-incompatible.
It's the same move as something like Good Day Chocolate; they're basically a bog-standard nootropics company, but they put the stuff in chocolate instead of pills and packaged it for the Whole Foods checkout line. I'm not sure that's the goal with Soylent, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was an attempt.