Built Different
By 3 p.m. the to-do list turns into a wish list.
You reread the same email, open another tab, and promote "tomorrow morning" to an official strategy.
We built a pill for exactly that moment.
Seven arguments, four minutes, none of them polite.
20,000+
Human studies on the ingredients
24+
Patents behind our ingredients
Coffee. Energy drinks. The option we're legally required to discourage. Same pattern every time: spike, crash, repeat.
Deadline spreads it out instead.
Coffeeberry and Dynamine arrive fast. Time-release caffeine carries the middle of the day. TeaCrine stays late.
One dose in the morning, still doing its job at 3 p.m.
Focus pills fail in two directions. Half of them you never feel at all.
The other half you feel too much. Heart going, thoughts sprinting, nothing landing. Stimulation without direction is just anxiety with a to-do list.
Deadline aims at the middle. Three stimulants with thousands of human studies behind them, and 200 mg of L-theanine to keep them in line.
What's left is the part you actually wanted: locked in, and weirdly calm about it.
It's a strange combination the first time you feel it.
Brain Scans · 500mg · 6 Weeks
Focus is expensive. The front of your brain burns fuel to hold a thought, and by mid-afternoon the tank is the problem.
Citicoline refills it. Brain scans of adults on 500 mg measured 14% more energy in exactly that region after six weeks, plus 26% more of the raw material brain cells are built and repaired with.
A hard day you can push through. A hard month is different.
That's rhodiola's job. In a placebo-controlled trial of 60 adults running on stress-related fatigue, four weeks of it cut fatigue scores and improved attention.
Another followed doctors through night shifts and measured less mental fatigue.
RhodioLife builds over time. Four weeks in the trials. Twelve in the longest ones.
That's the opposite of a first-day rush, which is exactly why most brands leave it out.
A supplement industry secret: most ingredients exist twice.
There's the branded original, the exact material the published studies were run on. And there's the generic copy, which costs a fraction and often has no research behind it at all.
Guess which one most brands put in the bottle.
Every trademark on our label (zümXR, Cognizin, Coffeeberry, TeaCrine, Dynamine, RhodioLife) is the studied original, from the supplier who makes it, with the paper trail to match. Six of our seven actives are branded originals.
When you read research about citicoline, Cognizin is the version they used. That's not a coincidence. That's why we bought it.
Our margin is thinner than it would be with generics. We think that's the right trade: you should get the version that was studied, not the version that was cheapest that quarter.
It's also why we'll have to raise the price soon after launch.
Reason 06
Most nootropics were mixed once, hyped hard, and shipped unchanged forever.
Deadline runs like software. v1.0 is live. v1.1 is already in the lab.
Every change lands in a public changelog with the reasoning attached, and subscribers get the new version free.
The version you buy today is already obsolete to us. That’s the point.
Reason 07
Run it against your real workday. Watch what happens after lunch.
Ninety days. Three full months to find out whether your afternoons actually changed.
If they didn’t, one email gets your money back. Opened bottle, empty bottle, doesn’t matter.
Cancel anytime. No calls, no forms.
The only thing you’re risking is another quarter of 3 p.m. surrender.
THE PRE-LAUNCH STACK
One dose in the morning, designed for steady energy through the workday, locked-in focus, and deep work that survives the Slack ping.
The pill is the product. The extras are the bribe: the steel container, the 3 P.M. Protocol, our $20-a-month focus software, and US shipping. All included today.
PRE-ORDER SPECIAL
When they’re gone, the price goes up and the next batch ships later.
94UNITS LEFT
SUPPLEMENT FACTS
SERVING SIZE: 3 CAPSULES · 30 SERVINGS PER CONTAINER
| Citicoline (Cognizin®) | 500 mg |
| Rhodiola rosea (RhodioLife®, 3% rosavins) | 500 mg |
| L-Theanine | 200 mg |
| zümXR® time-release caffeine (70%) | 111 mg |
| Coffeeberry® coffee fruit extract (70%) | 85 mg |
| Methylliberine (Dynamine®) | 75 mg |
| Theacrine (TeaCrine®) | 50 mg |
THE ROUTINE
1Once in the morning
2Take 3 capsules
3Smooth, not spiky
QUICK ANSWERS
| Best time? | Morning, or 15-30 min before deep work |
| With food? | Either way |
| Caffeine? | ~137 mg, mostly time-release |
| Max per day? | 1 serving |
FOUR THINGS THAT SET IT APART
Fully transparent. No proprietary blends. Every ingredient and every milligram is on the label.
Time-release energy. The caffeine comes on gradually for smooth, sustained focus, not a spike.
A stack, not just caffeine. Seven actives, including citicoline, rhodiola and L-theanine.
Built for the grind. Dosed for long, deadline-driven sessions.
The Pill
Pre-launch deal: $79 instead of $129, all four extras free. Price goes up when the batch is gone.
PRE-ORDER SPECIAL
When they’re gone, the price goes up and the next batch ships later.
94UNITS LEFT
Pre-launch deal: $79 instead of $129, all four extras free. Price goes up when the batch is gone.
INCLUDED FREE WITH TODAY’S ORDER
$66 in extras + $20/month software. You pay $0.
Stainless steel container
Deadline focus software
The 3 P.M. Protocol
US shipping
All four extras are included with this pre-launch offer.
$79
$129first month, then $99 / month
Ships Aug 21 Free US shipping 90-Day Guarantee Cancel Anytime
Beta Program
We're new. No army of influencers, no press-logo bar, and we're not going to fake one. So here's the unvarnished version: real notes from real testers in the program, good and mixed.
We're new. No army of influencers, no press-logo bar, and we're not going to fake one.
So here's the unvarnished version. Real notes from real testers, good and mixed.
Individual experience · not typical results
Alert without the wired feeling, that surprised me.
Individual experience · not typical results
Felt calmer than my usual afternoon coffee for me.
Individual experience · not typical results
Subtle on day one. By week two it just felt like part of my desk setup.
Individual experience · not typical results
No jittery drop-off in the afternoon for me, that alone sold me.
Individual experience · not typical results
A refreshing change to my routine, it kept me focused all day.
Individual experience · not typical results
Not magic, but I stopped needing a second coffee.
Individual experience · not typical results
Week one, not much. By week three the 2pm wall was smaller.
Individual experience · not typical results
Skeptical by default, but the afternoon slump is rarer now.
Individual experience · not typical results
I take it before my morning run and mostly stopped crashing.
Individual experience · not typical results
Noticeably less foggy in the afternoons by the second week.
Individual experience · not typical results
Alert without the wired feeling, that surprised me.
Individual experience · not typical results
Felt calmer than my usual afternoon coffee for me.
Individual experience · not typical results
Subtle on day one. By week two it just felt like part of my desk setup.
Individual experience · not typical results
No jittery drop-off in the afternoon for me, that alone sold me.
Individual experience · not typical results
A refreshing change to my routine, it kept me focused all day.
Individual experience · not typical results
Not magic, but I stopped needing a second coffee.
Individual experience · not typical results
Week one, not much. By week three the 2pm wall was smaller.
Individual experience · not typical results
Skeptical by default, but the afternoon slump is rarer now.
Individual experience · not typical results
I take it before my morning run and mostly stopped crashing.
Individual experience · not typical results
Noticeably less foggy in the afternoons by the second week.
Notes from unpaid beta-program participants describing their own experience. Individual experiences vary, are not typical, and are not evidence that the product works. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.
CATEGORY COMPARISON
Deadline prints every active dose. When we change the formula, you can see why. You still get 90 days to decide if any of it matters.
| How they stack up |
Deadline
Focus pill
|
StarbucksBrewed coffee | Leading nootropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per serving | $2.63 first month Then $3.30 |
$3.95 Grande brewed 47TH & 8TH, NYC |
~$1.78 per serving |
| Exact dose on every active | Yes: 7 of 7 disclosed |
No: Caffeine only |
No: 3 blend totals Most actives grouped |
| Time-release caffeine | Yes: ~137 mg total Mostly time-release |
No: 315-390 mg Not time-release, Up to 2.8× more |
No: None |
| Studied ingredient originals | Yes: 6 branded forms |
No: None |
No: None listed |
| Improving formula | Yes: Public changelog |
Not applicable |
No: No public update history |
| Money-back window | Yes: 90 days |
Not applicable |
No: 30 days |
| Free first-order extras | Yes: $66 in extras + $20/mo software |
No: $0 |
No: $0 listed |
Cost comparison uses Deadline's 30-serving subscription offer ($79 first month, then $99), the $3.95 pre-tax price of a Grande Pike Place Roast at Starbucks 47th & 8th in New York, and the leading nootropic's current 45-serving price.
Starbucks price and caffeine information were checked August 4, 2026. Other figures use publicly available product pages and labels reviewed the same day.
Every pill I tried had studies on the ingredients, zero data on the actual formula, and felt like nothing. I'm a numbers person, so I built mine backwards: start from the problems I want to fix, the real ingredients at the studied doses, then measure the formula and improve it on the data. A sharper version every cycle.
Take Deadline for a full 90 days. Not happy with how it fits your day, for any reason? We refund every dollar, including any subscription charges already taken. No emails to chase, no forms. Keep the bottle. We eat the cost. The only thing you actually risk is another quarter of foggy afternoons.
No corporate doublespeak
A focus stack for founders, builders, and anyone whose work actually matters. Seven ingredients at the doses used in published research, built to support the focus, energy and mental endurance that gets things shipped when the deadline is breathing down your neck.
About 140 mg, 80 mg from time-release zümXR® and 60 mg from Coffeeberry®. Roughly a cup and a half of coffee, but spread out like a professional instead of dumped on you at once.
Yes, but watch your total. Deadline already brings ~140 mg, a 200 mg pour-over on top puts you near 340 mg. Fine for some, jitter city for others. Run it solo the first week so you know your baseline.
The caffeine layer is designed to hit in under an hour. The slower-building pieces (citicoline, rhodiola) are studied over weeks. Many people notice something day one, individual response varies.
Not if you take it in the morning like a responsible adult. The time-release curve is mostly cleared by bedtime if you dose before noon. After 2pm is at your own risk.
Everyone moves to the new version. We only ship an update when our own testing supports the change, and subscribers get it first, free. You’re on v1 today; v1.1 is in the lab. If an update ever doesn’t sit right with you, reply to any order email and we’ll make it right.
No, one-time orders are $129, no lock-in. Subscribing saves money, locks your founding price, and gets you every new version free. You can pause, swap or cancel anytime online. Guarantee is 90 days either way.
Pre-orders ship August 21, free US shipping. After that, subscription boxes go out every 4 weeks. You can pause, swap or cancel anytime online.
Sources & fine print
Reason 01: Curve illustrates the time-release design per the zümXR supplier's dissolution specification, not measured blood levels. The caffeine + Dynamine + TeaCrine combination was studied together in Tartar et al., 2021 (energy and mood, ingredient level). Individual response varies.
Reason 03, Brain Scans: Silveri 2008, 500 mg daily for 6 weeks, frontal-lobe MRS scans measured before and after in the same participants. No placebo group in this study.
Reason 03, Attention Test: McGlade 2012, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 28 days, healthy adults aged 40-60, n = 20 per group. At 500 mg the impulse-error difference was statistically significant (2.68 vs 5.50, p = 0.02); the missed-target difference was a non-significant trend (1.47 vs 6.70, p = 0.06) and reached significance at the 250 mg dose. Ingredient-level research, not a trial of the finished Deadline formula.
Reason 04: Olsson 2009, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, n = 60, 576 mg standardized rhodiola extract daily for 28 days, adults aged 20-55 with stress-related fatigue. Twelve-week window: Kasper 2017, an open-label trial without a control group, where improvements continued to the end of the study. Night-shift findings: Darbinyan 2000. Studied range 100-576 mg. Ingredient-level research on rhodiola extract, not a trial of the finished Deadline formula.
