Matt Cauble on changing consumption with Soylent and Kin

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  • September 8, 2019

In the latest episode of Flux podcast I sit down with Matthew Cauble the co-founder of Kin Euphorics, a functional beverage company that aims to reduce stress and boost bliss. Matthew was previously the co-founder of YC-backed startup Soylent. He shares tales from the company’s early days and describes how they made one of the largest pivots in YC history, from building software-defined radios to meal-replacement shakes.

Matthew explains why Soylent resonated and we get into co-founder Rob Rhinehart’s latest interest in space settlement and the Mars industry event he hosted in the Mojave. Matthew shares why he became interested in wellness, how he’s applying lessons learned at Soylent to building the Kin product, and why he believes that strong companies often look like new social movements. We get into the beverage’s formula that includes nootropics and adaptogens, and what it means to challenge a ritual as ancient as alcohol.

An excerpt of our conversation is published below. Full transcript on Medium.

Soylent now also sells solid meal replacement bars

Rob Rhinehart

Rob Rhinehart, Matt Cauble, David Renteln, John Coogan

“Soylent Green” the 1973 thriller starring Charlton Heston

Rob Rhinehart’s 2013 blog post here

Coverage of the Betaspace event in April 2019 [LA Times]

Kin bottle — $39 per bottle. Kin spritz — $24 for a 4 pack.[Shop]

Alcohol volumes have been declining in the U.S. [Source: WSJ]

Other estimates put the nootropics market at $6 billion by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of 17.9% from 2016 to 2024 [Source]

The discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs shows that intentionally fermented beverages existed at least as early as the Neolithic period, 10,000 years ago. Wine clearly appeared in Egyptian pictographs around 4,000 BC and wine samples from Greece date to the same period. [Source]

Kin Euphorics co-founder Jen Batchelor

Source : Matt Cauble on changing consumption with Soylent and Kin