Institute For The Future

Talking anytime, anyplace health over a potluck dinner

While some of my colleagues in IFTF's Technology Horizons program were busy rubbing elbows at FooCamp, I attended a group dinner on Friday night to which I had kind of randomly been invited.  I ended up sitting next to a guy whose description of his start-up company caught my attention. 

Daerick Lanakila is the co-founder of SugarStats, a web-based blood sugar tracker and diabetes management system.  One of the interesting things about this two year old service is that it was built by diabetics (Daerick's 25 year old son, in particluar) for diabetics. 

SugarStats allows users to track, monitor, and share their blood sugar levels and other key statistics, anytime, any place. 

SugarStats is not the only site of its kind.  SweetSpot.dm, for example, offers similar services for a monthly fee.  SugarStats uses a "freemium" model--its basic service is advertiser supported and free to members.  (Daerick shared with me his goal of moving away from using Google Ad

Sense by collaborating with other websites to aggregate and sell more

targetted advertising.)  The site also offers a premium plan that provides additional functionality in an ad-free environment. 

My conversation with Daerick made my evening all the more enjoyable.  I look forward to my next random non-social media networking opportunity.