Are Beyond Meat and iRobot buys??

Recently, I was seriously considering buying shares Beyond Meat (BYND) and iRobot (IRBT).

They looked good on paper.

Both are leading companies in growing industries.

However, before investing I had to try out their products for myself.

Here are my reviews of their products and why I decided not to invest.

Beyond Meat

I tried their 16 oz plant-based beyond meat product.

Cost me about $10.

A pack of 16 oz natural ground beef is ~5$ in my neck of the woods.

So Beyond Meat is about twice as expensive.

Nevertheless, If it’s good for my health and good for the environment I’m willing to buy it.

One of the first things that I was turned off by when I handled their product was the list of ingredients on the back.

Ingredients

I expected the ingredients to give me a strong feeling that I was eating something healthy.

I didn’t get that feeling when reading the ingredients on the beyond meat package.

What’s Methylcellulose?

Isn’t Coconut oil less healthy than Olive oil or Canola oil?

So this got me wondering, Is it really healthier to consume this product compared to just natural beef?

The truth is: I’m not too sure and I found mixed opinions from nutritionists online.

Obviously, if you’re overconsuming meat that’s not healthy.

Similarly, if you’re overconsuming this stuff that’s not healthy either.

Nevertheless, I carried on to see how it tastes.

My first thought after taking a bite was: This tastes like a veggie burger.

Again, I’m sorry if I’m just coming off as crazy but I thought it was going to taste like actual meat.

That’s what really got me excited about this product.

I thought the idea was that we’re finally able to eat something that tastes like meat, you would swear that what you’re eating is meat, except it’s not.

That’s what I thought this was all about.

So I’m not really sure about its health benefits, it doesn't taste like meat, meat tastes better and is cheaper.

A superior alternative seems to be all-natural beef, where the ingredients just say "beef", along with fruits and vegetables.

Accordingly, this is not a product that I’m going to go to the grocery store and buy.

Since I’m not going to buy the product, I’m not going to buy the company.

iRobot

I was recently visiting my in-laws. They own a Roomba (iRobots robot vacuum)

My in-laws really like the product as does my wife.

I was personally really impressed with how well the Roomba cleaned corners.

I think if I was talking to the iRobot engineering team I would tell them to prioritize a feature that tells the user when the cleaning is done.

Currently, the Roomba only stops when you tell it to stop

Also, It doesn’t move in an organized way.

It just moves in a straight line until it bumps into something then it turns a bit and moves in a different straight line.

Not knowing when the cleaning job is done and not being able to verify that everything was cleaned is one drawback I see in the product.

Having said this I still think the product is good.

I know that automated cleaning is the direction that things are going and iRobot is certainly a leader in this space.

However, their product didn’t give me the impression that they were so far ahead that no one could catch up with them.

It seems like a good product with satisfied customers but it didn’t generate a sense of urgency for me to invest in it.

It seems to me that a company like Amazon could crush them with a competing product in 6 months.

So I won’t invest for now.

Conclusion

I think Beyond Meat and iRobot will likely do well in the coming years. They are leaders in industries that I think are going to grow rapidly.

However, when investing, every dollar you invest in company x is a dollar you’re not investing in any other company.

Are these two companies worthy of me passing up on investing more in something like Tesla, Lemonade or any other of the potential 10Xers in my portfolio in order to invest in them?

I don’t think so.