An Interview with Matt Cahill - Founder of Driven Sports

Posted by PredatorAdmin at 13:33 16/01/12

Reggie -  Can you tell us a little bit about the history of Driven Sports and your background in the industry?

Matt - I got my start in the industry over 10 years ago doing contract research and development work for various established supplement companies. It was a great way to start out but at the same time I also saw a lot of my hard work getting changed at the very last minute because of costs (most companies wanted the formulas to be much cheaper). That in turn either leads to less effective products or not getting paid the agreed upon commission. Then one day my wife, Melissa said “Why don't we start our own brand?”

Eventually Driven Sports was started in late 2008 with the goal of delivering the most scientifically advanced formulas, with the highest quality ingredients available. All of the formulas are heavily supported with numerous peer reviewed scientific articles. Each formula goes through multiple rounds of testing, including independent labs for identity and purity of the ingredients and we conduct independent clinical testing on the finished products to confirm all of our in house testing data (blood work etc).

Reggie - What do you think makes DS stand out from other supplement companies?

Matt - What sets us apart from other companies is the focus we put into the actual science and lab testing of the ingredients used in the formulas. By keeping on top of newly published science and scouring archived research we have uncovered a ton of incredible novel ingredients. So much so that our R&D team seems on average, to try out a new ingredient or new combination of ingredients every 2 weeks! We are constantly sourcing new compounds, sending them to the lab and then trying them ourselves before ever deciding if that new compound may or may not make it into a final formula. Many compounds that look amazing on paper do nothing in practice. This makes parts of R&D non-stop trial and error, but without it you would never really know if something new worked or not. I find this ironic because most companies just pick ingredients off a supplier list that someone emails them. We ask our suppliers to make compounds no one has ever used. It’s that innovation which is based on the most recent of scientific research that sets Driven apart from everyone else.

Reggie -  Can you tell us a little about the new preworkout DS is releasing, Craze?

Matt - What makes it different to any of the other countless preworkouts sold?
Our main goal when we started development on Craze was improving all out performance, not trying to force a pump. We’ve used this phrase I’m about to use quite a lot recently when discussing Craze, but it really does represent a complete paradigm shift for the pre-workout category. And it’s all based on our theory that the best workouts give the best pumps. Whether you have taken a pre-workout supp or not, if you have a killer workout I'm willing to bet you also had a great pump. That's what we want. The best workouts you have ever had. Everything else - speed, endurance, power, strength, muscle growth - will fall in to place if you continually have great workouts. We wanted the dose of caffeine to be low by comparison to other pre-workouts (Craze is under 100mgs per scoop, no one will ever need nor should anyone ever take more then 2 scoops), and we weren't going to use 1,3 (i.e. DMAA, MHA or geranium). Instead our research, combined with our thorough testing, lead us to a specific combo and ratio of Dendrobex™, Citramine™, caffeine and phenylethylamine (PEA) for the energy, focus and unique feel of Craze. There is nothing else like it and on the first dose that you try it, you'll know exactly what I mean.

Which makes me want to turn the question around to you – you guys have tried it and know exactly what I am talking about. How would you describe the difference between Craze and other pre-workout formulas?


Reggie  - The difference was night and day. Typically preworkouts are ones which get you angry which is how I would characterise those with high 1,3 content, or else they provide a nootropic benefit of increased focus. I find this from a few low/zero stim workouts. Craze was really like neither. Before I took it I was severely jet lagged and felt wretched, just horrible in fact. From taking it I began to notice the effects kick in after maybe 20 mins. At first it was a case of “Am I really feeling something or am I kidding myself”? It was a subtle initial effect. Then I remember getting up and walking away and then I REALLY noticed it. I felt excitement, euphoria and a real tunnel vision focus. I can see why this would then make people want to use it for focus, and a cognitive boost. As time went on these effects seemed to peak and just stay there for a couple of hours at least. No anxiety, sweating or uncomfortable side effects I could notice. Gradually, maybe 3 hrs after the effects wore off with no crash whatsoever. Regardless, both myself and my colleague were highly impressed. Then, when using it for my first workout I remember never being so excited about anything gym related for years. I just felt like the guy in the film “Limitless”. Nothing seemed to be out of reach on that first session I took it. Drive, focus, supreme confidence is one thing but letting me set new PB’s on exercises which I had been stuck on for years and setting them easily was nothing short of staggering to me.

 
Reggie - How would you suggest a user starts taking this? Is their dose dependent on their bodyweight?

 
Matt - With Craze being totally different than any other pre-workout type product, our suggestion is to start with either 1/2 scoop or 1 scoop, 45 mins before the workout. Use Craze alone the first few times so that you can really get a feel for it before increasing the dose or trying to stack it with any other products. I wouldn't stack it with any other stimulants or stimulant based pre-workouts. It really doesnt need it. Body weight doesn't seem to play too much of a role in the dose, it's more likely the individuals tolerance. I weigh 245lbs and I normally use 1-1.5 scoops per workout. My wife on the other hand weighs 120lbs and she uses 2 scoops all of the time. That's why its better to start low instead of just assuming you would be a "certain type of responder. "
 
Reggie - Does Craze need to be cycled to avoid adaptation to its effects? In our experience continued stimulant usage leads to rapidly diminishing effects. Is Craze different in this regard?
 
Matt - We always recommend cycling off all supplements at some point in order to get the max benefit from the same dose of whatever the supplement you are using. When testing Craze we didn't notice very much of a difference in tolerance or diminishing effects but we regularly take breaks ourselves. Even though the Craze project took us about 2 years to finish, the dose I still use is the same dose I started with. Still I would recommend 8 weeks of use with at least 3-4 weeks break. That can easily apply to all supplements except for something like Vitamin D, which we are huge fans of.
 
Reggie - What does the future hold for Driven Sports after Craze?

Matt - With the amazing response we have gotten so far with Craze and that we now need a new capped stimulant product, that is likely going to be the next product we release. I don't have an idea on the time line yet but its something we are currently working on. We have a few other long term projects but the sourcing of certain ingredients is proving to be far tougher then we originally thought.

As soon as Craze was released everyone wanted to know when the next flavor would be available. I don't know when or what that flavor will be yet but we will start testing new flavors soon. Any suggestions?


Reggie - I think fruit punch is the most popular flavours across our preworkouts followed by Blue Raspberry. I think those would be the ones to go for definitely.

Reggie - One of my favourite supplements in the old Designer Supplements line was Glucophase. I was talking to Matt Pearson from Genomyx about this and he told me to ask if you had any plans to bring that back?

Matt - We definitely plan on being back Glucophase. It's a long term project we have been working on.

Reggie  - Interesting you talk about a stimulant based capsule product. Adrenalean had a nice following in the UK and it was a shame when DS stopped making it. If the new product is anything like Craze though, the wait will be worthwhile.
We know Driven Sports has a great attention to not just working on supplements but educating readers. I personally find your blog very informative. What led Driven Sports to going down this path of providing quality education as opposed to doing what many companies do and relying on fitness models, pro bodybuilders and lots of hype? Were you ever tempted to sell products using the techniques that the mainstream companies use?

Matt - Adrenalean was a fantastic product. But it didn’t grow into it’s own like we had hoped it to. The designs we currently have for the new as-yet-unnamed fat burner are very exciting. We haven't tested out a complete formula yet, but we are very close. The various sub-testing has been going very well and we are putting a lot of what we learned with Craze into this product. We have no scheduled release date as of right now, but when we do the Predator Nutrition Nation will be among the first to know.
 
As for our company direction it’s pretty simple really: we play to our strengths. Anyone that knows Driven Sports knows that our products are not run-of-the-mill. They aren’t carbon-copies of other products. And they are certainly not founded on unsubstantiated evidence. They are innovative and push the envelope at every opportunity. They are rooted in science, backed by latest research and tested in the real world. Most importantly, they do not let the user down – they do exactly what we claim they will. We don’t (in our opinion, at least) over-hype or make outlandish claims for our product line that you’ll see other companies touting for theirs. We do this because we genuinely want to help people reach their goals, and the blog is one way of achieving this.
 
By the way, while we don’t have any athletes that we sponsor at present, I do want to make it clear that we are not against this somewhere down the line. However it is important to us that whoever we do sponsor is someone that is already a fan of our products and actually uses them. Again, this comes back to us legitimately wanting to help people accomplish their goals, not dupe them into some sort of false belief.
 
I guess what I am saying is that we know science so our marketing angle sort of chose itself.

Reggie – Matt, thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to conduct this interview. I am sure our readers will appreciate it a lot.

Matt – Thank You very much for your continued support Reggie.


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