Haha I wasn’t the only person that noticed then 
that he attempts to ruin our business
Haven’t seen it yet, but are you sure about this? Sounds like a knee-jerk reaction.
It’s not an entire episode about Huel. He talks about a lot of other thing too, and overall it is a pretty funny episode in my opinion.
@DEL1337 maybe Gorman thought we were a big corporation that he could attack. When in fact we are a small company, 9 full time employees and only 18 months since launch. Startups are inherently fragile and MOST FAIL.
When he uses a national TV show to pick holes and fun of a brand it can have consequences. For example, we advertise on facebook and one in 10 comment must be about dave gorman, at the moment. In other words lots of people, and potential customers, now have a negative perception about Huel which clearly can effect sales, which can result in jobs loses. Luckily he is not on a big channel so the damage shouldn’t be devastating but it could have been if he was on BBC1.
Picking on a young brand like Huel is irresponsible.
Maybe next time make a point of saying as soon as possible that Huel is a tiny company, a new start up with only 9 employees, making real food that is fortified.
I know from my days of public speaking that you NEED a mantra, something you always say as soon as possible, even if you say it as an answer to a question that has absolutely nothing to do with it, just SAY IT, and say it FAST. I learned this the hard way fairly early on in my public career. I was ‘selling’ (teaching) a training course that often got bad press, yet it was brilliant, but as we all know, those who don’t know what they don’t know always slate and belittle stuff for no good reason.
2 Likes
Thank you @terriann
I’m going to get in touch with Dave Gorman and try and explain who Huel is, why we existing, and hopefully change his mind. I know our heart is in the right place, the product is quality, and the concept can make significant difference in the world. So all the hate and trolling is unfounded, surprising, and personally it’s demoralising. I’ve definitely considered many times about pulling the plug.
2 Likes
Please don’t. Take pride in the fact that you are able to create something and not just criticise what others create. One of my old customers used to criticise everything we did. Never once did he create something himself or provide a solution.
3 Likes
Yeah but it’s not his fault you’re young or small. If it’s satire, parody or spoofing he is completely free to do so, bad luck for you guys. If it’s not, you can sue them. It’s as simple as that. Now he might have crossed a line, I don’t know I’m not a legal expert. Also, even if something is legal doesn’t mean he has to do it of course.
What!!!
I think it’s gaining momentum. Don’t get disillusioned or contemplate pulling the plug. You’re always gonna get haters I am afraid…it’s a difficult product to contemplate for many…and I guess it isn’t perfected yet either…contacting DG may come across as needy tho…
3 Likes
Please never pull the plug, I can’t put into words how much I appreciate your product!
4 Likes
I hope you won’t pull the plug Julian. Huel is a great product with even greater potential. I also think this is a pretty positive & healthy community in general which can help support your objectives. Maybe take five over this holiday to give yourself credit for all that you’ve achieved so far. It’s easy to forget that when trying to deal with the inevitable negative experiences that life never seems to run out of.
5 Likes
It’s difficult to know how that will go. He might ignore you, or it might add fuel to the fire and he might say more bad things about you, or he might see where you are coming from and then send out some positive tweets about Huel.
But it could be like a Labour politician trying to convince a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative supporter to change their political stance.
That’s entirely understandable, but maybe it’s inevitable that some people are not going to get the whole Huel thing. Maybe you will never convince everyone that Huel is a good idea. You (as well as many of us here) firmly believe in what you’re doing, but maybe you have to face the fact that some people will always disagree. And if some of those people are comedians, they will take the piss publicly, just as they do with politicians or anything really.
So, rather than trying to prevent things like this from happening, maybe you need to find ways to weather these kinds of storms WHEN they inevitably happen.
Again, it’s entirely understandable to feel like like that, but definitely don’t do that. You’re onto too much of a good thing here. You were the first UK Soylent alternative that I found, and you still seem to be the best one available as far as I can tell.
This is going to grow and grow, and as it does so, you’re probably going to keep getting some hate. But you’ll get a lot of love too 
I remember hearing in one of your interviews, you said you were doing this to show your son that it’s important to work. Hang in there, and show your son that Huel is worth it, and show him that when you believe in something it’s worth pushing through any bad moments to push it forwards.
4 Likes
Take heart Julian, you’re helping people in so many ways. You know how Huel has changed my life, and even though there’s the odd mood Hoover in the forums, I think I can speak for quite a few and say we’re with you mate, we’ve got your back, don’t give up.
4 Likes
I love huel and it will take a lot more than some media bashing to make me feel any different… I’ve lost 15 pounds so far and am not hungry at all!
2 Likes
Well, said, LLMC.
I couldn’t imagine not having Huel. It fits in so well with my day and takes away any worrying about what to have for breakfast, lunch and snacks.
If Huel didn’t exist, I would probably be reluctantly drinking one of the inferior alternatives, such as Joylent.
1 Like
If Huel didn’t exist I’d probably try to make my own DIY magic oaty potion, spending a fortune on ingredients and ages faffing around in the kitchen grinding, blending & measuring. In fact that’s what I used to do, much simpler just to keep buying Huel
Thank you for all for the kind words and success stories. Life at a start-up can be very up and down. I’m usually pretty resilient to all the criticism and general startup issues, but over Christmas it did seem to peak.
4 Likes
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that people are more likely to give negative feedback when unsatisfied than they are to give positive feedback when satisfied.
We satisfied customers probably have a duty to speak out more about our satisfaction, otherwise it’s understandable that Julian and the rest of the team can get down by constantly hearing their product being criticised.
2 Likes
They did send a questionnaire recently, in which I gave them 10 out of 10.
2 Likes
Haters gonna hate! You know what your mission is and what you stand for and I for one have nothing but good words for this product!
3 Likes