Originally published in Forbes

By Mike Montgomery

Depending on whose numbers you believe, the U.S. supplement industry is either a $12 billion or a $37 billion industry. That’s big by any standard. About halfof all adults take some kind of vitamin. To date, food and health companies have mostly ruled the market. Now Silicon Valley is getting in on the action with something called nootropics, which could open a whole new market for tech entrepreneurs.

Put simply, nootropics are supplements that promise to make us smarter. They have been around since the early 1970s and are made up of things like caffeine and vitamins B6 and B12 — substances the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves as dietary supplements and classifies as GRAS (generally regarded as safe).

The twist now is that these pills are being repurposed, repackaged and sold to Silicon Valley and Wall Street overachievers who work long hours. In December, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced a $2 million seed investment in Nootrobox — a nootropics company that markets its pills in attractive little glass bottles labeled “Rise,” “Sprint” and “Yawn.” A product called “Go Cubes” is gummy coffee bites. San Francisco-based Nootrobox bills itself as the leading name in nootropics and biohacking, but it’s just one of many firms manufacturing nootropics.

Andreessen got in early on Facebook, Twitter and Skype — so when the firm invests, Silicon Valley takes notice. Andrew Farquharson, a Kauffman Fellow and a managing director at InCube Ventures, which invests in innovative medical technologies, says the investment will likely prompt other venture capital funds to take a fresh look at the growing industry.

He expects that companies such as Nootrobox, through smart marketing, could succeed primarily as lifestyle brands rather than as health care companies, unless they can develop products that secure FDA approval. Their biggest challenge, he says, will be building intellectual property to protect their business as it grows. “It’s a reasonable place to invest,” Farquharson says of Andreessen’s investment in Nootrobox.

Nootropics companies are cashing in on a new trend of people experimenting by mixing drugs in order to work longer and more efficiently. On Reddit forums, people write about mixing combinations like the antidepressant prescription drug Tianeptine and the Russian synthetic nootropic Selank to boost energy while reducing anxiety. That’s obviously a very risky and foolish way to improve concentration. It doesn’t take a huge leap to connect the dots and see that safe, commercial products could fill a significant demand. Users of nootropics also mix and match their drugs, building their own personal “stacks” of supplements, but without the illicit risks of mixing prescription and foreign-made pills.

But to expand beyond the early adopters, nootropic companies will have to prove that their products are really safe.

Endocrinologist Dr. Florence Comite, an expert in precision medicine and the author of the book Keep It Up, says the theory behind nootropics is that they enhance neuroendocrine function, so you can improve how smart you are by changing cognitive performance through things like dopamine and other brain enhancers. Comite says that while lots of flavanols (contained in dark chocolate) and plenty of sleep will have a similar benefit, Americans love buying supplements. She believes that any company seeking to establish early dominance in the growing field should boost its credibility by engaging in academic research and hiring innovative medical thinkers.

She says, “A company that can come up with solid research and data-based findings will probably make a killing in the market.”

Mike Montgomery is the Executive Director of CALinnovates.