Formulated to support steady focus and energy through the afternoon, time-release caffeine with L-theanine, built to smooth the usual jitter and dip. Seven actives, every dose printed on the label, and a sharper version every cycle, while the rest stay frozen in 2019.*
Serving size: 3 capsules - Servings per container: 30
Microcrystalline cellulose, capsule and printing ink [hypromellose, calcium carbonate, shellac, propylene glycol, red and black iron oxide (for color)], calcium laurate, and silica.
The Deadline Company LLC
75 Omega Dr Ste 250
Newark, DE 19713
Once in the morning, or 15-30 min before your first deep-work block.
Take 3 capsules with water. One serving per day.
Smooth, not spiky. ~137 mg caffeine, mostly extended-release, comes on gradually. Skip within ~6 hrs of sleep.
From the label: Not for pregnant or nursing women, under 18s, or those with a known medical condition, consult a physician. Sensitive to caffeine? Start low.
Four things that set it apart.
No proprietary blends - every ingredient and every milligram is right there on the label.
The caffeine comes on gradually for smooth, sustained focus - not a spike and crash.
Seven actives—including citicoline, Rhodiola and L-theanine—formulated alongside time-release caffeine.
Dosed for long, deadline-driven sessions - the mornings that have to count.
Everything you need to lock in. Nothing you don’t.
Branded, traceable actives, not the recycled commodity powder the 2019 crowd rebrands. The same branded forms referenced in the published research.
The branded, studied forms the research was actually run on. Standardized, third-party tested, and traceable to the trial. Generic ingredients just borrow the name.
Lose your focus from 2pm on and you're shipping at half-capacity for 40% of the day — while someone with a sharper afternoon eats your lunch. Here's what Deadline is built to help with.
You’ve lived at least three of these this week. Probably all five
Calm focus. L-theanine paired with caffeine — the combination studied for focus without the jitters, done right.
Every ingredient is here to target one of these. Not stacked on vibes. Not picked for margin.
Every dose printed on the label, no proprietary blend hiding how little is actually in there. The forms and amounts you can look up in the research yourself. Read it before you read the hype. We’ll wait.
Made in the USA
with globally-sourced ingredients
Non-GMO
no GMO inputs
cGMP
good manufacturing practice
Seven actives made the cut. Here's what each one actually does for you, in plain English, including the one that didn't earn a hype line.
The caffeine is time-released, it comes out slowly over hours instead of all at once. Like a slow pour instead of a shot, to avoid the usual coffee spike-and-crash.
Most brands use only the coffee bean and throw the fruit away. We use the fruit too, a gentle second source of energy, plus antioxidants.
It’s the calm to caffeine’s kick. The pairing studied for focus without the wired edge, the one coffee nerds swear by, at a dose that actually does something.
Think of it as a raw material your brain uses to focus. Citicoline is studied for attention over multi-week windows, part of why we suggest taking it consistently.
It’s here for a smoother ride, not a brain boost. On its own, studies haven’t shown it makes you think better, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Its only job here is to make the energy feel smooth instead of edgy. That’s it.
Similar to caffeine, but studied for a slower tolerance build-up, one reason it’s in the mix for people taking it daily.
A stress-resilience herb studied for supporting resilience to stress and fatigue over weeks. Works on the slow clock, not the first dose.
Figures and "studied for" notes reference published research on the individual ingredients, not on the finished Deadline formula, and not a promise of results. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.
The fast actives are designed to work within the first hour. But the pieces that decide whether you re-order build over weeks, that’s the honest arc, and the reason Deadline is a subscription, not a one-off.
The fast actives are designed to peak in 30-60 min. Many people notice cleaner energy early on; individual response varies.
The window where citicoline reaches steady-state, where the attention & processing-speed research took its readings.
Where the strongest citicoline and coffee-fruit human trials took their measurements.
Where rhodiola research describes building resilience to stress and mental fatigue over weeks.
The full studied window for the long-form citicoline research.
One is built from premium, studied actives at full clinical doses. The other two are mostly caffeine and marketing.
| How they stack up |
Deadline
Focus pill
|
StarbucksBrewed coffee | Leading nootropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per serving | $3.30 per serving |
$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 ($99 a month), 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.
Most nootropics were mixed once, hyped hard, and shipped unchanged forever, like they were finished. Deadline gets retested and rewritten every cycle; we keep what our testing supports. The version you buy today is already obsolete to us, that’s the point. We’d rather keep improving it than let the competition waste another year of your attention. Every new version ships to subscribers automatically, free.
We run ours like software. Every cycle, a challenger formula goes up against the current champion in real cognitive-performance tests, beat it and it ships, lose and it’s cut. You’re always on the latest version.
Early DraftPre-LaunchEarly Draft
In the labIn the labSubscribe once and you’re always on the current best version. No re-buying. No “new & improved” upsell.
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.
Alert without the wired feeling, that surprised me.
Felt calmer than my usual afternoon coffee for me.
Subtle on day one. By week two it just felt like part of my desk setup.
No jittery drop-off in the afternoon for me, that alone sold me.
A refreshing change to my routine, it kept me focused all day.
Not magic, but I stopped needing a second coffee.
Week one, not much. By week three the 2pm wall was smaller.
Skeptical by default, but the afternoon slump is rarer now.
I take it before my morning run and mostly stopped crashing.
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 the product works. Not evaluated by the FDA.
I got tired of paying for 2019.
I got sick of losing the back half of every day to a fog that a $40 bottle of recycled, underdosed leftovers couldn't fix. So I built the thing I wanted and couldn't buy — real doses, nothing hidden, and retested every cycle instead of frozen for years. If it doesn't earn its place in your day, I don't want your money.
I got tired of paying for 2019. I got sick of losing the back half of every day to a fog that a $40 bottle of recycled, underdosed leftovers couldn't fix. So I built the thing I wanted and couldn't buy — real doses, nothing hidden, and retested every cycle instead of frozen for years. If it doesn't earn its place in your day, I don't want your money.
Take Deadline for a full 90 days. Not happy with how it fits your day, for any reason? One email and we refund your first order, every dollar of it. Keep the bottle. We eat the cost. The only thing you actually risk is another quarter of foggy afternoons.
Take Deadline for a full 90 days. Not happy with how it fits your day, for any reason? One email and we refund your first order, every dollar of it. Keep the bottle. We eat the cost. The only thing you actually risk is another quarter of foggy afternoons.
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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.
Orders ship from our US warehouse within 1 business day, free US shipping. Subscription boxes then go out every 4 weeks. You can pause, swap or cancel anytime online.
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 price, and gets you every new version free. You can pause, swap or cancel anytime online. Guarantee is 90 days either way.
