In this episode, I speak to Demir Vangelov, who’s the CEO of Soylent, the company many of you might know for making meal replacements drinks for busy entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. But the now-profitable company has shifted its target consumer towards middle America.
A somewhat controversial category, during my hot or not rounds on this podcast, most guests have responded negatively to the concept of replacing meals with a drink - and perhaps Soylent took this on board as in more recent years it's started calling itself a nutrition company with a small but growing number of product lines not just focused on meal replacement but all made from plants. Demir has been the CEO for nearly two years now and it's been a bit of a turnaround story as the company turned profitable in mid-2020. With a background in food and media, and having worked at one of the first almond milk companies out there, I jumped at the chance to chat to Demir about the future of plant-based foods as well. Enjoy!