Part 1: Conceiving D Sharp

The creation of D Sharp is a very personal story, so I won’t blurt it out in one long post. I want you to know what motivated us to create D Sharp, how it came to be and why our final product is so exiting.

Part 1 is the very start of D Sharp. In Part Two, I’ll tell you more about us and to top it off, I’ll brag about what we’re doing today. It is kind of my baby, after all.

After using messy paper logbooks during my first pregnancy to chart my rapidly changing insulin demands, I figured there must be an existing iPhone app to help me prepare for a second pregnancy. I found a few, but I found them cumbersome. I knew this would deter me from logging diligently. My pump couldn’t sync with a Mac and I wanted more than simply uploading glucometer readings. I asked my endocrinologist if he could recommend one, but he couldn’t. The diabetes educator couldn’t either.

When my husband Luke asked me what he should create with some new technologies he was interested in, I didn’t think twice about requesting a diabetes app. I knew what I wanted and he didn’t hesitate with getting to work.

My seemingly simple request and his desire to work with HTML5, Node.js, MongoDB and JQuery Mobile have made the last few months a bit of a whirlwind.

Had I said I really wanted an app that was part Angry Birds, part Tetris and played Top 40 hits, we’d be in a very different position — namely, leveling up while lounging on the couch instead of pouring our hearts into what we now call D Sharp.

I drew out what I wanted on scrap paper and Luke started coding. It wasn’t long before I was using “Pumper” to record my blood glucose. I started asking for new features and new features were added as we found areas that other apps were deficient in. My wish list of what I wanted it to do grew faster than Luke could implement the features, but he was excited to overcome the technical challenges and research medical best practices.

It wasn’t long before we realized that we had something that would appeal to more than just me. With our personal and professional backgrounds, we started to work out the logistics of something exciting and terrifying: the Startup.