Brain Stack Review

I was contacted by one of the founders of Maven Labs, wanting to know if I’d be interested in trying their new product/new formula of Brain Stack. Of course, I accepted the offer.

While I waiting for the product to ship, I exchanged some emails with Paul(co-founder of Maven Labs). During these exchanges it gave me sometime to pick his brain about his product a little, and about nootropics in general. He agreed to answer some questions for me so,  before I get to my reviews and thoughts about their product, I’d like to share with you some of conversation.

 Q. I see that you have updated to a new formula. What has changed from the previous formula, and why?

A. The biggest change is that we have added Lion’s Mane and removed Vinpocetine. Lion’s Mane is part of a move to use ingredients that may have benefits beyond the cognitive, and have effects less fully explored. We have noticed more stable effects since the formula change. Part of the reason we removed Vinpocetine is that it had more side-effects in some cases, reducing the overall effectiveness. The other changes were alterations in dose, removing some of the less potent ingredients, such as GABA, and increasing the more potent ones, such as Choline. These changes were a combination of research on our own part, and feedback from our customers.

Q. Do you, yourself, take BrainStack daily? If so, how do you feel it
effects you?

A. Personally, I try to limit my BrainStack usage to a cycle of 4 days on, 3 days off, to help prevent a tolerance build up. Plus, constant focus takes its toll, no matter what the drug or supplement. I prefer to have 4 focused days and 3 relaxed days. In addition to using BrainStack to increase productivity, I experiment with other body optimizations, such as intermittent fasting and exercise timing. Typically, BrainStack gives me a feeling of a calm focus. The most common phrase to describe it might be, “zoned in”. I also try to listen to a non-vocal type of music with a steady cadence, and make sure I have a good block of uninterrupted time to help fully utilize its effects. With that combination, 4 days per week are all I need.

Q. What caused you to get into the “nootropics” field?

 A. We initially used drugs such as Adderall and Modafinil, but were tired of the relentless side-effects. We wanted to search for a solution that was easier on our bodies, and our lives. The extreme effects of drugs did not work well to create a tempered effect that would allow smooth transition between our work lives and personal lives. After doing lots of research and experimentation, we wanted to create a custom combination of nootropics, and noticed there were not many products out there that offered what we were looking for. That has changed quite a bit since we first got into the market, but our product will continue to grow with us.

Q. How do you feel your product stacks up against the competition?

A. Our product can appear very similar to other products, but we feel we are better poised to respond to customer needs and market changes more readily. We stay on top of nootropics research and integrate our customer feedback to create a product that adapts to the changing industry.

Q. Is there any new products planned from MavenLabs? Do you see yourself
branching into other areas, i.e. stamina/energy related products?

 A. There has been a lot of talk internally about branching to different products. While we would be very excited to do this, we are a small and focused operation concerned with our primary formula and loyal customers. We don’t want to grow quickly and alienate the customers that got us where we are like other popular nootropics companies. Additionally, if we take our eye off of our product, there are many hungry nootropics companies ready to take our place.

Q. Last but not least, Where do think the nootropics industry is heading? Personally, I feel that it’s only going to get bigger and bigger, and we  just began to scrape the surface.

 A. Nootropics have nowhere to go, but up. The plethora of available products is a testament to that. The cognitive sciences are finally coming of age, seeing revolutionary advances in understanding, and the drug and supplement industries will follow right in its footsteps. Also, as international communities join the field, we will see progress coming from many different directions. That is part of why we have included Lion’s Mane, trying to integrate some of the Eastern approach to supplementation, to find a combined approach that will outperform each of them, individually.

My Review

I was sent their “2 week supply”, which is one bottle(32 capsules). If you were to buy Brain Stack, the 2 week supply will cost you $34.95.

If you’ve read my about me page or any of my other reviews you’d know that I work long and weird hours. Luckily, my supply arrived in time for a long two weeks at work. One week I worked five, 10-hour days, and the second week I ended up working six, 10-hour days.

So What’s In It

I had already done my research on the ingredients in Brain Stack beforehand on their website, good thing because when my bottle arrived their was a sticker placed over the list of ingredients.

I managed to get the bar code sticker off the back without removing too much of what was underneath. It may have been placed there by the people at Amazon since that’s where it shipped from. If you’re looking to order I suggest ordering straight from Maven Labs – here.

Their new formula contains the following ingredients:

• GPC Choline (Alpha GPC)
• Huperzine A
• Lion’s Mane
• L-Theanine
• Caffeine
• Bacopa
• Pterostilbene
• Mucuna Pruriens
• GABA
• Vitamin B6
• Vitamin B12
• L-Carnitine

You will notice a lot of the same ingredients in Brain Stack as you do in Alpha Brain, but their is some slight differences in the amounts and a few others that aren’t in Alpha Brain. I think the major difference would be  the addition of caffeine to BrainStack.

Now the bottle says to only take one or two capsules, but you can take more if you need to(no more than 8 a day). I’m roughly 200lbs., so I opted to go with two.

While taking Brain Stack, I did notice an slight increase in all categories except for sleep (I’ll get to more on this later).

It would have been nice to have a larger supply to sample, so I could of increase my daily dosage as I did with Alpha Brain. It would of been nice to been able to take another dose closer to bed to see if it had any effects with vivid and lucid dreams. But at the same time it contains caffeine so it may have caused issues if taking to close to bed time.

Overall I feel that BrainStack in a decent product. I felt that it gave me a bit of an edge during a hectic two work weeks. Now don’t go taking this and think that it will make you the next Einstein, make you have a photographic memory,or have the same effect has some prescription drugs but it should help you. My only real complaint would probably be the caffeine. This is just my personal preference, as I do seem to be a bit sensitive to large caffeine intake.

Maven Labs as a whole seems like an awesome company that is dedicated to customer service and is also genuinely interested in what their customers think of their product, so that they may improve in areas if need be. I also found it cool that they took the time to not only contact me, but also answer some questions for me as well.

If you want to try it out, try using this coupon code that I found – “20OFF”