From Soylent to Founders Fund
John Coogan on how he is helping Peter Thiel's Fund
John Coogan, the co-founder of Soylent and creator of a viral YouTube channel, has had an intriguing journey to his current position at Founders Fund.
Coogan began his career as an entrepreneur by establishing Soylent, a meal replacement product that provides nutrition conveniently. The product became a huge success, with viral blog posts written by the team garnering about ten thousand sign-ups in a single day.
During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Coogan found himself with a surplus of free time, which he decided to fill by creating videos for YouTube. He would spend Sundays brainstorming ideas, researching, writing scripts, recording, and editing videos. Initially, his videos only received a modest number of views, but he persisted, creating content for friends and synthesizing his knowledge on various topics. One of his notable early works was a video on the history of Silicon Valley, which was praised for its comprehensive approach to explaining the region's history, its unique ecosystem, and the factors contributing to its status as a tech hub.
Despite the lack of significant traction from sharing his videos on Twitter, Coogan's YouTube channel eventually went viral due to high retention rates and high click-through rates. He attributed this success to learning how to frame his stories in broader contexts that appealed to a larger audience. This process took time and persistence, but his channel eventually outperformed his Twitter account regarding follower count.
His work did not go unnoticed. Coogan's abilities to synthesize complex information into digestible content, coupled with his entrepreneurship background, caught the attention of Founders Fund. He joined Founders Fund in 2023.