How Forgetting a Birthday Led to MakeBDay

It started with a text message. "Hey, thanks for the birthday wishes!" — except I hadn't sent any. I'd completely forgotten my close friend's birthday. Not for the first time.

I checked my phone. No reminder. No notification. Nothing. The birthday had come and gone, and I'd missed it. Again.

That night, I did what any engineer would do: I searched for an app. And found... nothing good. Calendar reminders felt cold. Social media notifications were buried in noise. There was nothing that made birthdays feel special.

The Idea

What if there was an app that didn't just remind you — but helped you celebrate? A place to collect photos from past birthdays, share memories with friends, and build a visual timeline of every celebration.

And what if it went further? What about zodiac compatibility? What about wishlists so you always know what to get someone? What about friend groups that organize surprise parties?

Building It

MakeBDay was our first El Taller project. We built it in evenings and weekends over three months. The tech stack: .NET MAUI for cross-platform (iOS and Android from a single C# codebase), with Azure Cosmos DB in the cloud — because the features we wanted most (photo proposals, shared wishlists, friend connections) only work when data lives where everyone can reach it.

The hardest part wasn't the code. It was deciding what to leave out. We had dozens of feature ideas, but we kept coming back to the core question: what would have prevented me from forgetting that birthday?

The answer was simple: a beautiful, personal space for birthdays that I'd actually want to open. Not a utility. An experience.

Today

MakeBDay is on iOS (TestFlight) and Android. It's free — no ads, no data selling. Your birthday data is stored securely in the cloud so you can share memories, wishlists, and photo proposals with the people who matter.

We use it every day. And we haven't forgotten a birthday since.