Screenshot of early Soylent promo page with glass of the drink and 'How I Stopped Eating Food' blog links

Soylent

2013viral productclassic

Published October 23, 2026

Soylent is a meal replacement drink that software engineer Rob Rhinehart created in 2013 and named after the dystopian 1973 film Soylent Green. His blog post about living a month on the homemade shake went viral on Reddit, drew Vice features and generated over $3 million in a Crowdtilt campaign that May. By May 2014, the first 30,000 retail units shipped to customers in the United States.

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Overview

Soylent sits at an odd intersection of Silicon Valley food hacking and science-fiction irony. Rhinehart assembled the drink from maltodextrin, rice protein, oat flour, canola oil, fish oil and raw chemical powders meant to cover every known human nutritional need8. Supporters called it a cheap, time-saving replacement for cooking, while critics mocked the premise and questioned the science behind a drink formulated by someone with no formal nutrition training4.

Discussion online centered on whether a person could actually live on the mix, with Rhinehart openly inviting experimenters through an open-source approach to his recipe1. Vice staff writer Brian Merchant ran a 30-day Soylent-only diet on camera, and the resulting Motherboard video drew more than 895,000 views and 5,000 comments within six months3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Personal blog (origin) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Rob Rhinehart
Date
2013

Rhinehart was working as a software engineer in late 2012 when he watched an elderly, injured friend struggle to feed himself, which prompted him to leave his job and begin tinkering with a liquid food substitute4. He taught himself nutrition from online courses and books, then published "How I Stopped Eating Food" on his personal blog on February 13, 20131. The post described a month of eating nothing but his homemade shake and tracked each ingredient change he made along the way. He borrowed the product name from Richard Fleischer's 1973 film Soylent Green, in which processed food rations turn out to be made from human corpses8.

How It Spread

Rhinehart launched Soylent.me on February 17, 2013 with links to his blog posts and a newsletter signup. Four days later, Redditor duncangeere submitted the blog post to /r/WTF, where it collected over 630 upvotes and 110 comments before archiving6. Vice ran an interview with Rhinehart on March 13, 20135, and the DNews YouTube channel followed with host Anthony Carboni on March 257.

In May, Rhinehart's Crowdtilt campaign set a $100,000 goal and closed at over $3 million10. TechCrunch reported a $1.5 million seed round on October 21, 20132. Rhinehart hosted an /r/IAmA on November 15 to answer questions about naming the drink and his plans for the third world9. The first 30,000 retail units shipped to U.S. customers in May 201411.

Timeline

2013-02-13

Rhinehart published "How I Stopped Eating Food" on his personal blog, documenting a month on his homemade shake.

2013-02-17

Soylent.me launched with blog links and a newsletter signup.

2013-02-21

Redditor duncangeere submitted the blog post to /r/WTF, where it collected over 630 upvotes.

2013-03-13

Vice published an interview with Rhinehart about creating the drink.

2013-03-25

DNews uploaded an on-camera interview with Rhinehart hosted by Anthony Carboni.

2013-05

A Crowdtilt campaign with a $100,000 goal closed at over $3 million.

2013-10-21

TechCrunch reported Rhinehart closed $1.5 million in seed funding.

2013-11-12

Vice's Motherboard posted Brian Merchant's 30-day Soylent diet video, drawing 895,000+ views.

2013-11-15

Rhinehart ran an /r/IAmA about naming the product and distribution plans.

2014-05

First 30,000 retail units shipped to U.S. customers.

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