Dave Renton

Lucy nicotine gum: an early angel bet on Soylent's founder

Shaan recounts one of his first angel investments — Lucy, a 'new age Nicorette' nicotine gum subscription started by Soylent founder Dave. He reasoned the nicotine market is huge with great retention, and the bet paid off (he later cites a 5-6x markup).

“one of my first angel investments, uh, I don't remember when this was, 3 years ago, the founder of Soylent, Dave, um, who's my friend, Dave Renton, uh, Renton, he started this thing and, um, it was based— it's basically a Nicorette. So it's new age Nicorette. Nicotine gum.”