Where does the inspiration for a business begin?

Before business metric updates- before a company even has a mission statement- what is the moment that a citizen is compelled to action in the world towards something they care about?

That is what this update is about; the human experiences that inspired Neurohacker Collective into being. This update will be longer than most, because this isn't so much a company update as it is an earnest background as to what formed the growing company you see now.

My brother Daniel and I had childhoods that were more unusual than most.

Our early childhood was spent in the transcendental meditation community of Fairfield, Iowa. Our parents homeschooled us for large portions of our childhood. Rather than being taught courses such as math, history, and chemistry, we were encouraged to examine whatever interested us, and to acquire whichever forms of knowledge were needed to understand those interests better.

Perhaps because we were raised in a way that emphasized relationships between educational subjects, both of us soon became very interested in fields that emphasized interrelation: ecology, complex systems science, and holistic approaches to human well being.

In addition, our parents inspired us as rebellious risk takers. I watched my mother pivot from professional ice skating to a mobile book business in the 80’s, while my father had diverse interests that varied from late night science experiments that would normally occur in a lab instead occurring in our house, to trying to found a floating prototype city, all while sometimes making ends meet between these more exotic pursuits with gritty blue collar jobs.

Some of these risks paid off. Others failed. Sometimes we were comfortable financially. Other times we were just about broke and living out of a car. But their fearlessness to pursue genuine interests, combined with self-guided pursuits in education, helped forge a sense in us that convention is nothing to aspire to, and the unknown should be met with a sense of adventure, not with a sense of fear.

It was with that inspired background that I went on to take over Body Mind College here in San Diego at just 18 years old, by securing funds from some older investors who took an enormous risk on a teenager with far more passion than experience. During this same time, my brother Daniel studied advanced mathematics at Maharishi University of Management and became deeply immersed in a broad range of topics needed for humankind to secure a sustainable civilization. Through these interests, Daniel began collaborating with some of the most passionate and respected thinkers in the world on these issues.

Meanwhile, Body Mind College became a success, offering teaching and techniques in a host of healing modalities for over a decade, while my interest in political health advocacy grew at the same time. While this was exciting, it was also exhausting. Running a college while also being a passionate political advocate had me burning my candle at both ends for many years.

My health was beginning to suffer in serious ways. I was experiencing serious brain fog and memory lapses. My sleep was becoming poorer, and my emotions were becoming more easily rattled. I was experiencing what so many in modern life experience; the collapse of physical and mental health in pursuit of reaching our goals. While still just in my 20’s, I was experiencing near complete adrenal failure, and my mental and physical health were reaching a very serious, very dark place.

The irony was not lost on me that I was running a college for body and mind, while valuing my ambition above my own health.

I knew I needed to begin embodying health and well being in my own life. I had caught wind of some little known intravenous drips that purportedly had profound effects on revitalizing mental clarity and vibrancy offered in a private clinic in Mexico.

With a turnaround in mind, I headed to Mexico for the interventions available through the private clinic. Within just a few days, the result of the treatments were so amazing for my mental capacity that not only did I overcome the mental and emotional exhaustion I’d experienced for years, but the treatments actually left me in a state of mental capacity above anything I’d ever experienced.

That is the moment I realized what optimal mental and emotional products could do for society if they were available at the scale of a large global audience.

Soon thereafter, my brother Daniel went through an even more serious health battle of his own, in which an autoimmune disease left him with a very grim, potentially terminal prognosis. Although he’d already been deeply educated in complex systems and biochemistry, these interests went on overdrive in an effort to craft his own medical protocol, and save his own life.

To the amazement of some of the physicians who had addressed his medical case with little hope, he succeeded in crafting a protocol to manage and maintenance his autoimmune disorder, and in so doing, advanced his already-deep biochemical understanding of the human body to a level that began attracting consultancy interests from some of the top physicians in the world.

I realized that if I was to found a bioscience organization for upgrading mental, emotional, and physical well being at scale, my brother and his emerging social network of world class medical and naturopathic practitioners would be the ideal personnel with which to partner.

As we began collaborating on what would become Neurohacker Collective, Daniel introduced me to Jordan Greenhall, a legendary San Diego entrepreneur who had cofounded the video streaming giant DivX and had remained CEO from inception to IPO- an extreme rarity in business. This had given Jordan the financial freedom to enjoy retirement and pursue what most deeply interested him.

After DivX, Jordan turned his attention to the same issues of global civilization sustainability that Daniel had been engaged with now for a decade. It was through that social network of academics and philanthropists that Jordan and Daniel first met.

When Daniel gave Jordan samples of our early prototype product for mental and emotional uplift, the results worked so well for Jordan that he agreed to come out of retirement and become a 3rd founder for Neurohacker Collective, realizing that in times as precarious as ours, meaningfully upgrading the capacity of citizens from the inside out, plays a vital role in achieving a more capable society.

That is what makes our origin story so unique.

The mission that drives us cuts to the core of what our human experiences have been. Our interest in groundbreaking complex systems science formulations employ many of the same understandings that helped save my brother’s life. The life changing experiences some of our customers have had with our Qualia line of products mirror the same gratefulness I experienced after my journey to Mexico. The power of our products were enough to coax one of our founders out of retirement to become Executive Chair of our company.

And to see Neurohacker Collective bloom as a social phenomenon over the last several years- to travel the country and the world meeting people whose lives are being changed by our products, our content, our podcast and mission- is one of the most fulfilling honors of my life.

Struggle is what bonds us all, but the power to transcend struggle- mentally, physically, emotionally and communally- is what the best of humanity can be, in terms of responsibility to ourselves, and responsibility to each other.

If you are inspired to invest in Neurohacker Collective because we are a thriving late stage startup on the cusp of potentially large growth, then your investment is welcome. But even more welcome would be those of you inspired to invest because our origins, and our reason for existing, resonate with you as a human being.

Thank you for you taking the time to read the human experiences that have shaped us into the company you see today.