We get a lot of questions about where people will spend money. We gave a ton away in our book, Efficiency, but we’ll give another one out for free. We’re giving it out for free because it’s a rapidly growing market, we have no interest in building a business around it and it has every single emotional item needed to sell well. This is essetnially everything you would want wrapped into one market… The market? “Brain Pills”. The brain pill market should see rapid growth so lets jump right in.
The Brain Pill “Sell”
Artificial Intelligence: With AI taking over a ton of the news articles nowadays, this brings up an interesting problem for your average guy. The average guy now thinks the “robots are out to get his job” so now he feels insecure about his own capabilities. He won’t admit this publicly but he’s worried to his core that his white collar job that requires data entry into an excel sheet may be automated. This doesn’t sit well, so he’s going to look for a solution. As always he’ll expect a magic product to solve his problems.
Belief in Genetic Intelligence: The vast majority of people believe that intelligence is genetic. You’re either born smart or you’re born to be normal. If there is a way to somehow take a product and become “smart” they will jump all over it. You see this today with a lot of people jumping on things like ModAlert and other grey market products. We’re going to see more and more people research this market. If you look closely, you’re already seeing these products infiltrate a lot of main stream websites (the advertisements are becoming quite common).
The Belief Others Are Cheating: This is the third major reason we see a large increase in demand for “Brain Pills”. With more and more people becoming aware of athletic drug use, they are going to immediately believe that people are “cheating” with their brains as well. We’re not saying it should be illegal, that’s essentially irrelevant, the real point here is that people “believe” there is a one stop solution. As an example, a lot of average people believe that a single steroid can make you a world class athlete. This defies all logic. But. This is how people think. Knowing that this is the trend-line people will be ready and willing to shell out tons of money for a “trick”…. If you can take advantage of all three of these things, you’ll be a multi-millionaire in practically no-time.
The Brain Pill “Product”
As usual, the product has to work. If it doesn’t work temporarily you won’t be able to sell them consistently. So lets go ahead and look at what products actually work for brain functioning.
Fish Oil: This is a natural product that helps your brain function (assuming you take a liquid product). Many of you are already aware, but the premise is quite basic. The human brain requires long chain polyunsaturated fats and fish oil essentially provides this. The most common term you’ll hear is “omega 3- fatty acids”. In short, by including “omega 3-fatty acids” into your product it will be easier to sell since your average person knows of it.
Blueberries: Doing some quick research you’ll find that blueberries are tied to brain functioning as well and they throw around the phrase “anti-oxidants”. In fact, we got bored and googled this phrase and found an article with the following: “According to James Joseph, PhD, lead scientist in the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. ‘Call the blueberry the brain berry’, says Dr. Joseph.” In short, by including anti-oxidants with a blueberry angle will help and make the product easier to sell.
Caffeine: We’re going into greyer areas now, by including caffeine in the product you’re essentially using a temporary high to improve performance. Instead of saying “coffee” or “caffeine” pills you’ll want to keep the dose lighter. This means you’re going to use some sort of low dose caffeine that seems healthy. Clear answers include: Matcha Green Tea and Yerba Mate. Does it matter that caffeine is always going to be the same chemical formula: C8H10N4O2? Absolutely not! The key here is you want something that works, appears to be healthier and can be sold at a premium.
Adderall/Provigil (Modafinil): Now we’re into the real grey market area. It will come as no surprise to anyone reading this, but we don’t take either of them and don’t recommend it. That said both of them sell extremely well and have been shown to improve brain functioning. Adderall is significantly harder (worse) on your body and consists of dextroamphetamine saccharate, amphetamine aspartate, dextroamphetamine sulfate and amphetamine sulfate tablets. For this reason it is a controlled substance. Provigil (Modafinil) on the other hand is another stimulant considered to be weaker but “safer” than Adderall (specific chemical name: 2-[(diphenylmethyl)sulfinyl]acetamide).
LSD Usage: This is the last item that comes up consistently as a “brain enhancer”. LSD is borderline mainstream at this point, in fact, if you google search LSD and Silicon Valley you’ll find it on “Ted Talks”. When something hits “Ted Talks” level, you’ve reached the masses since that is the target market for Ted Talks in the first place (something that seems kind of edgy, but old news to people on the forefront). This is no longer “grey area” and we’re now solidly in the black. The primary ingredient is unsurprisingly… lysergic acid, acquired from fungus.
How To Compete
Ah yes, we’ll even give this away. If you’ve read the section above you now have enough ideas on how to create a solid “brain pill product”. The question is going to become “how will you compete”. You can compete on the product side, the marketing side or the process side. Product Side: If you want to compete here, you’re going to have to really think about a competitive edge. You buy all of the main brain products (one bottle each) and then think critically about how you can create more “power” out of each item. If you’re reading between the lines here, you essentially need to find a way to legally sell items that are approaching the grey market slowly but surely. Marketing Side: If you’re interested in competing on the marketing side because you’re a fantastic salesman… you already know what to do. You buy a brain pill product that is currently working, take the ingredients off the back, make a few adjustments… rebrand and market like crazy. Since you’re commoditizing the product, the secret sauce will be the sales section. Process: Since this is a newer market, there is a chance (a *good* chance) that the process of selling and distributing isn’t being done correctly. The type of item being sold, quantities and supply chain likely need improvement. Unlikely but a potential hole is here.
Now before we sign off we’ll answer the question you’re already thinking. “If it’s a good market why don’t you do it”. The answer to be honest is we couldn’t figure out the product side. If we look at the three ways to compete “Product, Market, Process” the *ideal* way to compete is by having the best product and hiding all the ingredients/secret sauce to the best of your abilities. We tried to figure this out and failed. We then looked at the marketing side and realized (at this point in our lives) it makes sense to simply buy other companies in the *same* markets that we are currently involved in (we don’t have to re-learn the marketing side). In short, we couldn’t figure out a clear competitive product edge to become a small monopoly in a niche market.
As always the truth doesn’t sell. We are always willing to try a new product (even a brain pill product) but it has to offer something different. We know the majority of the items in all the major brain pill products today and you won’t be surprised to find out… they don’t work long-term. We take one look at the ingredients and know it’s essentially a concoction of different “tag phrases” that don’t add any real value.
How to Improve Your Brain Naturally: For fun, if you’re looking at real ways to improve your brain power they are actually quite simple. 1) you want to drink/eat foods that increase blood flow such as pomegranates, beets and ginger (with cayenne if drinking it), 2) you’ll also drink fish oil daily – you won’t take tablets, 3) you’ll juice or eat blueberries and 4) you’ll use caffeine on occasions when you really need to focus, just remember it’s a temporary boost. That’s the reality right there and in that order. Once you consume blood flow items in the morning, move to brain functioning items and use caffeine as a boost you essentially have the right formula down pat. If you’re going to venture into the grey/black areas that’s your call and we don’t really have an interest in it anymore.
Health tips are the biggest reason I bought “Efficiency” and it did not disappoint. I put several of those “hacks” into practice and it’s made a real positive difference.
I’m 29 and I’m already noticing a massive difference in energy levels from only a couple years ago. I’m was never in terrible shape but the moment I had that realization that it’s all downhill from here I’ve been on a mission to keep my body and brain in pristine condition for as long as possible.
If I could send one message to myself ten years ago it would be that the lack of energy hits you way faster than you think, so to guys in your early twenties, take advantage of it while you have it. There’s no way I could put in the kinds of hours I did even a few years ago, even if I wanted to.
Agree. This is another reason to become an expert in something early, this way you have a well to draw from at all times.
The longer you wait the harder it gets!
Yes, this! I am 45 now, and I can really feel the decline even with a healthy diet and hitting the gym. The decline is real.
I could never go back and repeat what I did in my 20s and early 30s in Silicon Valley startups. I just don’t have the raw energy and drive. And it’s that raw energy and drive that made me successful. I’m glad that I made enough millions to escape the rat race there and retire at 40.
You only get one shot at youth. If you want to spend it drinking, playing xbox or screwing girls in Thailand, that’s your option. But you’ll end up at forty broke, with less energy, and a much reduced chance to escape.
Hard to admit but did fall for this multiple times – modafinil starter pack, nootropic sampler pack (3-4 years ago in college), probably $30-40 on other stuff
“The key here is you want something that works, appears to be healthier and can be sold at a premium.”
Funny observation, walked into Whole Foods (under WSPs recommendation for eating healthy during travel – btw you guys were right, coworkers always want to eat at places shit for your health) Their Yerba Mate was advertised as a product that South American women drank while pregnant and sold at 150-200% price of similar products… killer margins!
Now at 22 realize “magic pills” not great – “patching/working around” the problem with chemically induced “motivation” much weaker than intrinsic success mindset. Atleast only $150-200 lost and no significant health defects!!! Can be glad of that.
Nice marketing on their side. Just need to rationalize them into the sale. Help them rationalize by giving them something that “sounds” logical.
I have an opportunity to market a brain pill in a joint venture with an influencer That has 200k loyal followers. I know the exact ingredients I want to use, I just don’t know how I should produce it! Any advice?
As usual not a Q&A.
Noted.
This is great.
I’m sure you guys know, but Alex Jones has been selling all the buzz emotional buys for men for a while (brain force, man force, XYZ test and performance enhancing force).
Putting two and two together… Essentially.. Alex Jones is a large scale cloaker. Lol!
He is extremely polarizing, half the shit he says is untrue, builds fear and emotion intensely in his audience, and finally has the emotional “easy pills” to fix all the issues the big government has created.
Thank you for the value!
Also I’ve been testing out brain games for a while.
Play chess too.
Ive found that essentially the brain along with your dietary manipulatipn can be stimulated along the same compounding means with any other sort of muscle, you just need intensely complicated and difficult items to work at.
So, a compound press for your chest, triceps, and stabilization muscles, builds integrity and innervation, such as a game of dual n back builds integrity of connections between aural/visual/working mem integration, strengthening the brain, giving more clarity.
I believe the statement that IQ is set is false, as with any skill, if you work at it long enough, even ones that involve mental facilities (playing music) you will increase ability, and discover standing out in new places is very easy and you can quickly fill the gaps due to your compounded skill.
IQ is and has always been a measure of a person’s aptitude at a point in time; it was never “set”.
It’s a standardized test taken by students of the same age or grade level (presumably in the same country), with the average right answers of last year’s test returning a score of “100”.
Each 15 points above or below is one standard deviation away from the average correct of last year.
130 “IQ” = 2 standard deviations above in answers right to last year’s participants.
The minute you graduate high school and a standardized curriculum it becomes irrelevant (if it ever was).
No one “has” an IQ anymore than they have an “A” on a test they took 10 years ago.
In fact, it’s more used in much younger students (elementary or middle school) simply to predict which track fits them best, where they are best suited to be in classes, based on how they are learning the curriculum so far with reference to their peers.
Substitute caffeine with guarana seed extract. It’s “naturally occuring” caffeine that’s bound to whatever(don’t remember, google it), so your body gets the caffeine slowly throughout the day. Throw in some jargon related to how people metabolize caffeine fast/medium/slow according to genetics, and you’re set.
Before ephedra was banned in the US a lot of fat burner supplements were guarana seed extract + ephedra.
Lol yep same old.
“Some small tweak is a gameeee changeeerrrrr”
Hahahaha man that sells so well.
Love the blueberries and juicing bit. Diet is so important it’s insane how so many guys may age (29) completely disregard it. Diet and fitness make such a huge difference and give you a huge advantage over the competition. One thing I personally struggle with is sleep. I have hard time shutting down on weekdays and getting ready for the next day. Meditation helps, but it’s hard to get consistent quality sleep overnight. When I do sleep soundly, I am so much sharper at work and better in the gym, but I need to figure out a way to consistently get this. Trying to adjust A/C, earplugs, no screens 1 hour before, no liquids 2 hours before. Easier said than done.
Passionflower extract is something that I have used to great success. One dose one or two nights a week keep me on track. Makes the body tired enough to overcome the mind, non-habit forming, natural, organic, etc.
Heavy sprints help me out, similar to HIIT training
I tried whatever legal and safe-enough thing I could get my hands on. While they have positives, they also have major cons on the health side because for example fish oil may contain mercury which fucks your body long-term.
Because of my attitude (I am not going to blame the performance-enhancers) I had a serious burn-out several years back, which will not be repeated. Reality is that your biggest gains are not those of efficiency but those of effectiveness. Sleep, have little stress, don’t do more than necessary.
Penny-wise, pound-foolish.
Instead of doing all of the crazy programming myself, I am incrementally outsourcing development tasks for fixed price to other programmers. Allows me to avoid the whole hiring and management debacle and focus on getting things done. Will not work if you’re inexperienced though.
Hahaha we’ve heard that effective over efficiency argument before. Typically by dudes who read Tim Ferris
The irony of course, if you’re not effective you can’t be efficient by definition. Becuase efficiency gets rid of all wasted time.
Either way if it works it works, we could care less already there!
I remember hearing it from Tim many years ago when I was interested in his stuff, and I believe he used the argument against Getting Things Done; his distinction was Strategy vs. Tactics.
Essentially he was talking about the incorrect focus of getting really good at the wrong things; efficient at doing ineffective things.
WSP changes the context here to “life efficiency” which means whatever wastes your life i.e. doing the wrong (ineffective) things, is inefficient.
It’s really just stepping in and out of contextual levels, with the highest (and most important one) being life. And Tim actually does a good job of explaining all that, but for the masses. So I imagine the people making those arguments either didn’t understand it very well, or were themselves stuck in the belief systems of the Regulars, and thus missed the greater implications.
Also, the WSP book Efficiency is aimed at ambitious young(ish) men, and is the best resource for them and to address this. Tim has some similar ideas, but it’s purposely made to appeal to a much broader audience and thus has to be distorted significantly.
Great article, love your work. No need to publish this.
> “LSD is borederline mainstream at this point”
Small typo –> borderline.
> Process: Since this is a newer market, there is a chance (we’re unsure) but a high chance that the process of selling and distributing isn’t being done correctly.
This one is being a tad nit-picky, but “there is a chance (we’re unsure) but a high chance that the process” doesn’t make sense and took a double take for me to get across. Possibly reword to:
“There is a chance (we’re unsure, but it’s probably a high one) that the process of selling and distributing isn’t being done correctly”
I’d much prefer you to smash out your articles than worry about typos and small errors. Just thought I’d highlight them in case you get a moment for correction.
Thanks, we fixed it. Always a couple even after a proof read!
interesting read on how you think about entering a market like this and how you think you about competitive advantage.
The reality is that even if someone really did make their product more powerful it is going to be marginal in functionality unless you go “grey/black” and even at that point the masses won’t actually try every product.
In my (personal) opinion, the way to dominate this market is get prime authorities on your side in the “optimization” space – Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris’s – of course those two names are probably way too big but that’s where creativity comes in.
And No unless you are still in to go “black/grey” .. I don’t mean Stephen Hawkings 😉
Anyone know the optimal amount of liquid fish oil per day? Efficiency recommends at least 1 TBSP but is it better for example to have 3?
Cool post.
Well we never said we would avoid the grey area. There are ways. The rules say it must be FDA approved that’s all.
If you can get it approved it gets sold.
Good read.
The same can be said of other ‘enhancement’ products like fat burners and pre-workouts etc. although, those markets are already fairly saturated.
That being said, given the fact that everyone wants a quick solution to all their health problems, I doubt the influx of ‘new and improved’ fat burners and pre-workouts are going to stop. Its just a matter of finding a better product, market, or process.
Enhancement products are great they are just saturated
The brain pill enhancement market is the next large wave, no one has real traction with it yet except the grey market drugs
Ironically I just had some Booster-Ads from MyProtein in this article. Which is also a nice place to look for ingredients. As in brain pills, everything that works is either caffeine or amphetamines (almost sad no one does the coke anymore), however, there are some adds:
– Taurine, cheap as dirt, also comes with Energy drinks, seems to work synergyistically with caffeine in low doses (thinking in the hundreds of miligrams), but also kinda migitates side effects of caffeine in higher doses
– beta-Alanine, helps to get a few more reps in the already-useless-range of beyond 12 reps, or in endurance training; however, many people notice some tingly feeling. If it makes you feel weird, it must help!
– vitamin C/citric acid/sour taste often helps the perception of something being refreshing and recharging (compare phosophoric acid in cola)
– Creatine: probably the only non-androgen that really makes a difference, but has no place in a booster, but would better be just part of regular supplementation or post workout. Anyway, people think it works… Could also be used in a brain supplement, as some studies suggest creatine can mitigate the loss of brain function induced by a low meat diet (wich is less than 2kg in one study :o) )
– some of the B-vitamins seem to be present and I have not looked into their effectiveness; however, they are an evergreen and were already popular in brain and sports supplements in the 90s
– BCAAs are in now. Being mostly expensive (a 30g Whey already contain 5g BCAA) they do not totally taste like shit in a drink and everyone thinks they work. Also not the worst for brain function, as regular people do not eat protein and your brain pretty much consists only of protein, cholesterol and water.
So well, much of the stuff you would put into a booster of whatever nature would mostly contain agents improving the feel and perception, instead of its effect. AND: If you already have the infrastructure to produce a product for the brain market, you could rebrand almost the exact same product and put it on the fitness market or vice versa.
Just found this blog recently and been quite enamored by all the postings.
Nice to catch a new one. I notice you didn’t mention L-Dopa / Mucuna, that could probably be a big one, anything that increases dopamine levels increases feelings of well-being, focus, energy, and sex drive.
I realize its not a Q&A, but any thoughts on getting expertise in an area like brain health? Just tons of internet research / experimenting essentially?
You are operating on territory that is already spoken for.
Nice well done!
This shit is so true. People seem to forget that this is how Tim Ferriss got his start, selling BrainQUICKEN before moving on to other bullshit that doesn’t really work. I think the most important things you need for a “brain pill” are already in most preworkouts: caffeine (for the temporary boost) and creatine (for the actual, scientifically-backed, long-term cognitive improvement). Throw some other placebo ingredients in there and you’re set (like a propriety blend of flour and sugar, but rename it “NeuroBOOST”).
Some studies on the cognitive benefits of creatine, if you’re interested:
1. Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial.
2. Cognitive effects of creatine ethyl ester supplementation.
3. Effects of creatine on mental fatigue and cerebral hemoglobin oxygenation.
4. The neuroprotective role of creatine.
5. Creatine in mouse models of neurodegeneration and aging.
Mr. Blockchain – I’m interested. Can you put some link or references on those?
WSP – Can’t thank you enough for the blog and efficiency. On point on everything.
Nice post. However, the biggest fuss online is testosterone. Everyone is promoting trt or selling a natural alternative that’s herbal. It has been blown out of proportion to scare men into buying it. I wonder what would happen if most men stuck with a diet consisting of game meats, fruits, and vegetables…the whole trt industry would be out of business. Something to think about.
The T-booster market was saturated around 2012-2014… too mainstream. They even had them on national television targeted 100% to masses
Not great anymore but could work
Sex pills too. I know a guy that sells natural sex pills online. Everything natural & herbal. In his first year he reached millionaire status just in the states. Now he s global. He s killing it. Just listening to him talk and he makes you feel like you need his products. Lol
Insecurity products.
The holy fuckin grail.
In my mid-20s…basically everything you guys said already is true.
Yup. I run a website in the “brain” space, and the amount of nootropic websites popping up is just insane.
I get nootropic dudes e-mailing me every day now!
I’ve actually been considering producing a supplement. But it’s really difficult to come up with a formula that actually works AND gets recurring revenue.
If you stick with basic proven ingredients, I have a feeling that hardcore marketing skills can take you to a few million in revenue. Not sure how happy your customers will be…But you’ll have enough net profit to take on a more meaningful venture afterwards.
Forgot to add this link also.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-safe-drug-to-boost-brainpower/
Dementia drugs are good as they usually provide enhancement effects in healthy individuals
There’s actually many natural (herbal) ingredients that work to help the brain create more neurons in the long term, improved memory, improved focus etc. Adaptogens to reduce stress (cortisol). And more and more.
Hyperzine with Choline supplements create more Acetylcholine in the breain which has proven to increase ones score on IQ tests. For me increases mood and motivation as well.
Ashwagandha, Bacopa and many more can reduce anxiety and in that way help you focus on the ONE important task you are working with, less distractions.
I use all these myself and many more supplements and really feel the difference.
L-theanine is also great to reduce jitters from caffeine.
Alot of caffeine + l-theanine almost feels like cocaine or amphetamine and the like.
Interested in your thoughts on angling brain pills towards the video gamer market.
I’m going to be testing some demand soon to see what bites and if there is potential for a subscription model.