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Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

businessweek.com

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Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#11

Post by swamp40 »

alanctgardner2 wrote: post #8
sp332 wrote: post #2

This is interesting because it's an end-run around the FDA's current regulations on caffeine intake. Reminds me of when Five-hour Energy claimed they weren't an energy drink but an energy "shot" and shouldn't be held to the same regulations.

It's completely uninteresting because it's an end-run around the FDA's regulations on caffeine. Let's just brainstorm all the ways to ingest caffeine, eliminate the ones the FDA has explicit regulatory power over, then target what remains. Unsurprisingly, the FDA will start to take notice if you're obviously trying to sidestep them, and then they'll legislate you out of existence. Frankly this is really disappointing…

I don't agree with your opinion, but I love your last line.

Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#12

Post by 300bps »

desigooner wrote: post #6

For me, it's really easy to dismiss the product as snakeoil when I hear something like Homeopathic energy being used to promote the product.

He calls it “homeopathic energy” and says they’ve invested around $50,000 in it so far.

Maybe it's time he gives back the $100,000 and enrolls back in college. For anyone unfamiliar why it's such a red flag that someone voluntarily associates themselves with homepathy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a system of alternative medicine originated in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann, based on his doctrine of similia similibus curentur ("like cures like"), according to which a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people. It is widely considered a pseudoscience.

The remedies are prepared by repeatedly diluting a chosen substance in alcohol or distilled water, followed by forceful striking on an elastic body, called succussion.[7] Each dilution followed by succussion is said to increase the remedy's potency. Dilution usually continues well past the point where none of the original substance remains.

Basically, if you have a cold:

1. Start with a poison that causes cold symptoms

2. Dilute it with water

3. Repeat diluting it with water until the most sensitive scientific instruments can no longer detect the original substance

4. The water then has an "imprint" or "spirit" of the original substance which will cure the cold

Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#14

Post by 300bps »

mtinkerhess wrote: post #9

It sounds like the main benefits from the spray as opposed to coffee / tea are: 1) Cost 2) Convenience. The spray will cost about $0.38 per dose. The competition isn't coffee or tea but caffeine pills, which are cheaper and about as convenient. It looks like you can get 120 100 mg pills on Amazon for $5, or $0.04 per dose. I don't see the benefit of a spray as opposed to pills.

It looks like you can get 120 100 mg pills on Amazon for $5, or $0.04 per dose. I don't see the benefit of a spray as opposed to pills.

You have a good point, but 100 mg is a good dose of caffeine for people that are sensitive to it. They would find themselves cutting the pills down for lesser doses. The 100 mg caffeine pills I bought on Amazon are very tiny and would be very difficult to cut without a specialized device.

Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#15

Post by Someone »

Homeopathic, indeed. http://www.unboundmedicine.com/harrietlane/ub/citation/15135... states about 2 microgram/cm^2/h absorption of caffeine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine gives about 100 milligram per cup of coffee.

Assuming 100 cm^2 exposure area, you would need a milligram per cm^2 for a "cup of coffee equivalent". That's 500 hours ("three weeks")

And that is assuming that this spray is equivalent to whatever van de Sandt er al used to get caffeine on the skin (I would guess they applied way more than a spray would apply)

On the other hand, high pressure spraying (better called jet injection; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector) might work. I think that would require FDA approval, though.

Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#16

Post by dvmmh »

Someone wrote: post #15

Homeopathic, indeed. http://www.unboundmedicine.com/harrietlane/ub/citation/15135... states about 2 microgram/cm^2/h absorption of caffeine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine gives about 100 milligram per cup of coffee. Assuming 100 cm^2 exposure area, you would need a milligram per cm^2 for a "cup of coffee equivalent". That's 500 hours ("three weeks") And that is assuming that this spray is equivalent to whatev…

Everyone that buys this is going to spray it in their mouths. This has nothing to do with skin absorption and everything to do with getting around the FDA.

Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#17

Post by karnajani »

JacksonGariety wrote: post #5

> "The world's toughest problems aren't going to solve themselves!" What problem does this solve? Sleep deprivation for people who don't drink soda, tea or coffee?

Seriously. All I could think is,this is one of the world's toughest problems?

I get the spirit behind the idea of giving kids money to tinker, but this creates what's equivalent to a programmer who has only learned from stackoverflow and w3schools. There is a lot missing that's still part of the standard college curriculum, and the worlds problems will most likely need just as much theory as practical understanding.

Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#18

Post by inspector-g »

[His] father, who has a Ph.D. in bioorganic chemistry and owns his own lab in China, helped develop it.

I love the irony. Peter Thiel was trying to make a point with his "College Dropout Challenge", but this product was really developed by someone with a graduate-level education.

Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#19

Post by JacksonGariety »

karnajani wrote: post #17
JacksonGariety wrote: post #5

> "The world's toughest problems aren't going to solve themselves!" What problem does this solve? Sleep deprivation for people who don't drink soda, tea or coffee?

Seriously. All I could think is,this is one of the world's toughest problems? I get the spirit behind the idea of giving kids money to tinker, but this creates what's equivalent to a programmer who has only learned from stackoverflow and w3schools. There is a lot missing that's still part of the standard college curriculum, and the worlds problems will most likely need just as much theory as practical understanding.

Maybe this isn't because the kids were given freedom from school.

Maybe it's because the person funding them came from Stanford.

Re: Caffeine Spray, Brought to You by Peter Thiel’s College Dropout Challenge

#20

Post by jotm »

dvmmh wrote: post #16
Someone wrote: post #15

Homeopathic, indeed. http://www.unboundmedicine.com/harrietlane/ub/citation/15135... states about 2 microgram/cm^2/h absorption of caffeine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine gives about 100 milligram per cup of coffee. Assuming 100 cm^2 exposure area, you would need a milligram per cm^2 for a "cup of coffee equivalent". That's 500 hours ("three weeks") And that is assuming that this spray is equivalent to whatev…

Everyone that buys this is going to spray it in their mouths. This has nothing to do with skin absorption and everything to do with getting around the FDA.

the taste is pretty bad and lingers for a while - why not just get pills?
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