I love the brand and I love that this product uses natural ingredients. I could see using it from time to time. But i'm skeptical about how this category of products is being pitched as a healthy, long term alternative to actual meals. Humans evolved to eat real food. Preferably in company of other humans. Nothing is ever going to improve on that.
@paul_shustak hey man, I completely agree! We're not about replacing real *healthy* food with people (maybe pizzas if you consider that "real"). My stance is, eat real healthy food when you can. Have Ample on the occasions you can't. I just ate brussels sprouts, liver and an avocado for lunch, and plan on doing so for a really long time. But when I'm at work and the only option is 4 Clif bars or a burrito, I choose Ample. We want to be the best packaged food possible.
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What about a direct comparison to other substitutes like Huel? Huel is made from natural stuff as well, and is optimised for health. Using a disposable bottle per serving doesn't sit well with me as an environmentally conscious person, have you thought about a different method of packaging?
@sammycdubs hey Sam! Thanks for the questions!
RE: Packaging:
Yes, I've thought of another package. Eventually, we'll do bulk powder, but right now, most of my customers are looking for super convenience and will otherwise not use Ample if it requires a blender bottle. Blender bottles make it significantly less portable. I decided for the medium arrangement in that it's still in a bottle (bad) but isn't as heavy as shipping liquid (good). We'll also be looking into compostable containers early next year.
RE: Huel:
Huel's ingredient list for reference:
Ingredients: Oats (Contains Gluten), Pea Protein, Flaxseed, Brown Rice Protein, MCT Powder (from Coconut), Vitamin and Mineral Blend (Maltodextrin for Carrier Purposes - less than 0.7%), Potassium (as Potassium Citrate), Chloride (as Potassium Chloride), Calcium (as Tricalcium Phosphate), Vitamin C (as Ascorbic Acid), Choline (as L-Choline Bitartrate), Vitamin E (as D-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate), Niacin (as Niacinamide), Vitamin A (as Retinol Palmitate), Pantothenic Acid (as Calcium-D-Panthothenate), Vitamin D2 (as Ergocalciferol), Vitamin B6 (as Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin K1 (as Phytonadione), Riboflavin, Chromium (as Chromium Chloride), Copper (as Copper (II) Citrate), lodine (as Potassium lodide), Molybdenum (as Sodium Molybdate), Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B12 (as Cyanocobalamin), Selenium (as Sodium Selenate), Sunflower Lecithin, Vanilla Flavour System (Vanilla Flavour, Gum Arabic, Sucralose).
Many of the same things I've said about Soylent apply here. If you'll notice, the word "natural" doesn't have a ton of meaning if all but the first row of ingredients is basically just a powdered multivitamin. In terms of real ingredients, Huel has Oats, Pea Protein, Flaxseed, Brown Rice Protein, and coconut (kind of). If I may be blunt (apologies), it's just pretty basic.
The fact is, there are LOTS of competitors, and people have been doing it for YEARS. Soylent, Huel, 100% Food, Core, Slimfast, Ensure, etc. Except from Ambronite (which does it right), they're all just a relatively simplistic form of nutrition. 1-2 forms of carbs, fats and proteins, plus a standard multivitamin blend. The nutrition value varies surprisingly little. Usually use poor forms of multivitamins. Very little fiber, and certainly no pre-biotics or greens.
My issue is that, in an effort to make a nutrition label that looks like it's got it all, we basically play to the test i.e. the FDA label. But, since the FDA label itself is outdated and largely inaccurate, we go for nutrition label looks at the expense of real nutrition. I apologize for being blunt, and I don't mean to be offensive.
For more on this point about FDA values being outdated and our preoccupation to "play to the test", so to speak, check out my blog here: http://www.amplemeal.com/the-fda...
Thanks for the questions!
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this looks great, and connor sounds pretty up to speed and knowledgeable here. worth a shot at least. looking forward to trying it.
Also seems pretty well priced... even if Solyent is cheaper (as it is designed to be). If I peruse the shelves of Whole Foods or similar stores, there's tons of $5-$8 ready to drink craftsy products... usually some kind of cold pressed juice. This obviously should compete well with those nutritionally, and be similar price wise. Will have to see how it tastes!
One question Connor: what are your thoughts on the product for kids? Particularly young kids/toddlers, 2+?? I'm not thinking about it as a regular meal replacement, but on face value, if I could get my kids to use it (taste issue), I could see it as a pretty useful alternative a couple times a week to some of the other stuff they like (eg. Kefir, protein heavy yogurt shakes, green smoothies, etc.).
@jeremyz123 Thank you so much Jeremy! I'm super impressed that you've raised your kids to not only eat but LIKE kefir and green smoothies. Sounds like they've got a good dad.
From a physiological standpoint, Ample would be awesome for them. I just stay with the original, or Ample X, and stay away from the keto version for a bit though until there's just a bit more data on how ketogenesis effects kids, and the high carb version (which won't be relevant until they're doing intense exercise). It also seems like you're raising your kids to value real food which I think is awesome, so I would just make sure they still get in their veggies from time to time : )
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@connor_p_young well, i'm trying... there's plenty of crap food mixed in there... any way to get more good nutrients in them is a plus! i'll let them try it for sure. thanks
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@connor_p_young as a daily Soylent 2.0 consumer, I'm looking forward to trying Ample.
How are you thinking about driving/growing sales, focused on online distribution or through retail as well?
@malaparte Hey Andrei,
We want to stay away from retail for the moment, until our brand is stronger and we can leverage better prices (with, say, Whole Foods).
Instead, we're starting out with just small gyms, small and mid-sized businesses who provide food for their offices (you know... so we could level up the food that we got at 500 Startups ; ) ) and online affiliates who can both help us maintain brand integrity and take a smaller portion of sales. Amazon is an option in like 8-12 months.
But a key to our longterm growth is doing clinical studies. We believe that it opens up a ton of doors that are closed to almost any other food. We're working on a study showing Ample's relation to increased productivity vs. other foods. As the first packaged food proven to improve working productivity, it will massively help both consumer brand, and allow a long term play into corporate wellness, hospitals, military, and schools. I used to sell surgical devices to hospitals, and I know that it's easy to sell something regardless of cost to a hospital if you can establish its real clinical value. Especially with current government pressure with ACA.
@malaparte So regarding your initial question about driving growth/sales right now, post Indiegogo, we'll be basically just building the community with content, starting the initial study, and growing social media so that when we launch September, we have a strong enough community. Better community = higher LTV and lower CAC.
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This is great compared to soylent. I appreciate the more holistic approach to the nutritional profile, and that you are introducing different profiles for different groups of users.
As an avid believer/follower in epigenetics/nutrigenomics, I'd love to see a truly customizable version in the far-future so that someone with adverse reactions to many foods (not allergies) could specify their target nutrition input and food types and receive a truly customized meal fit for their genome. That's a product I'd love to see or even work on.
@kisea This is our eventual plan. We're starting with cohort studies (double blind, peer reviewed) to test different versions against people. Eventually we'll be get more customized as we go forth. We'll likely never get fully customized -- i.e. choose what you want and we'll make it-- because that cant scale with current technology in a cost effective way. but we can have epigenetics data on lets say 6-12 versions, we can recommend something that is pretty damn close to "optimal" for the large majority of people.
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@connor_p_young Very cool to hear that. It would be really impressive to do mixes on the fly.. Never say never!
Another place I see this vertical going is integrating food allergy tests, genetic, hormone, deficiency tests, etc. Low test, high estrogen? Eat this, supplement that, delivered to your doorstep. Today, there are just too many factors, and all of this data is expensive to get, hard to interpret yourself, and isn't related in a way that is actionable without considerable effort. It's all trial and error in a silo. I'm excited to see where your company, and the industry go. There's just so much room for improvement and opportunity. World changing stuff really.
@kisea completely, that's certainly the direction we're going. The traditional food industry is way behind the times and can definitely use some leveling up!
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Hey Connor,
thanks for taking the time for our questions. As somebody from Europe I feel a little left out, because I'd like to give Ample a shot. I dont blame you, Id do it the same way and start with one market at a time. I feel a little shi**y even asking this, but are there other nutrition complete foods you'd recommend? You clearly know what youre talking about. I want to make myself familiar with the matter without reading 10 different books about it or starting out with a bad product. if you have any recommendations just until i can order some Ample myself, that would be great.
@gopietz hey man, great question! Well, I really respect @ambronite, (@mikkoikola, @suoheimo), and they ship to Europe currently--they are from Finland. If I didn't create Ample, I'd be drinking Ambronite. Their nutrition knowledge is good, and give a shit about their customer's health. A bit higher carbs than I personally like, but the ingredients are stellar. So if you're looking for solid complete nutrition, go with them. www.ambronite.com. And we'll try to get Ample to Europe ASAP as well!
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