Comment · Fri, May 6, 2016 · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
New Vendor Launch! Thrivous.com
Original post in this thread
Arosophos · 27 points
Hi /r/nootropics.
My name's Lincoln Cannon, and I'm CEO at Thrivous. Thrivous is a brand new nootropic vendor. Sales of our first product, Clarity, began less than a month ago. And we're excited to share it with you. Of course I don't have to ask for it here, but please know I welcome your questions and feedback, both positive and negative.
Like many of you, I've been using nootropics for years. Most of the time, I've purchased individual ingredients to facilitate experimentation, and to avoid the high prices and secret formulas of premade stacks.
Over the years, when friends have learned that I use nootropics, they've often asked for recommendations. I tend to be conservative in matters of health, particularly when making recommendations to others, so I would generally direct them to natural supplements with the best supporting research for nootropic effect.
Several months ago, inspired by all the nootropic bottles next to my sink, my wife and I had a conversation about the [sorry state of affairs among premade stacks](https://thrivous.com/blogs/views/97432769…
What they were answering
Arosophos · 2 points
Thanks for your reply, MisterYouAreSoDumb. Here are my thoughts.
I'm happy and not surprised that we have the same point of view regarding obfuscation in the industry and the need to fix it. May it be so! :)
I find that you're substantially exaggerating reasonable concerns with CTLA as a legal and business entity, and that your view is not as representative of an unbiased outside observer as you appear to believe. I've started and worked in many businesses, small and large, for decades. Some are better at legal details than others. Some care more about exactitude within lawfully permissible possibility spaces than others. Each has a varying bias toward creating more or less legal entities within and in relation to itself. If you were to open your own business legalities up to the world for criticism, I'm confident you would receive criticism (often excessively) for one reason or another, even if and perhaps particularly if you did everything through one legal entity.
It seems likewise excessive to critique any legal entity, CTLA or otherwise, as strongly as you appear to be doing based on its age. That under-weights more important factors in most cases. In this particular case, it's at least under-recognizing divulged information that CTLA is operated by a person with 15 years of relevant experience, and that it's a break-off from an organization that has been around for a…
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
First off, I appreciate how friendly you have been, and how you have been willing to discuss all this openly. Most people would not do that, or would get a lot more defensive than you have. It's refreshing to have someone willing to have an honest back and forth with me.
You are correct that I am holding you to a standard not commonly done. That is only because of the lengths you went to comment on the stringent quality control processes you used in your introduction post. When someone makes claims, I immediately attempt to validate them with the information I have available. Had the secondary COAs been formatted in a standard way most analytical labs do, and contained sufficient information to satisfy what I feel stringent quality control processes are, I likely would have never commented. I would have still looked into the lab. However, my suspicion would have been much much lower. The age of the lab by itself is not that big of an issue. New companies pop up all the time. However, new companies need to give more evidence for people to trust them. Those COAs do not have the necessary information for me to do that. Pair that with the fact that the lab is owned by the same person who owns the company manufacturing the product, and the low ages/lack of industry and community trust with everyone involved, and you can see why someone like me might start questioning all sorts of things.
Now CTLA could very well be a valid testing lab, and just made some mistakes on how they formed and presented their findings. It could very well be run by someone with over a decade of experience. However, I am about the most skeptical person you will probably ever meet. When something does not make sense, I want to know why. This makes me catch things most people don't. However, it also makes me come across as an insufferable ass at times. The argument could even be made that I am, in certain cases. But I do not stop until I am satisfied with the explanations put forth, given the evidence available. If it makes the community safer, and makes the industry more trustworthy, then a bit of persnickety side effects here and there are worth it.
You genuinely seem like you want my endorsement, so I'll make you a deal. Send your natural extracts off to a trusted 3rd party lab, and have them HP-TLC and HPLC tested. If they come back correct, and all the active ingredients are in the percentages stated, then I will make a public post endorsing your product. However, if they come back incorrect, or the actives not in the amounts stated, then you make a public post stating that, and take the down the product till you can rectify the issue. I only care about the legitimacy and purity of the product itself. If that can be confirmed, then all my others questions about businesses or entities involved are irrelevant. I already ordered your product when we first started talking. So I'll be analyzing it too.
Sound like a deal?