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Disclaimer: I am involved in iCharts as a co-founder, investor and an active board member.

iCharts was launched at the recently concluded TechCrunch50 conference.

The Background:

Here are the facts:

* There are about 40 million charts online.
* If that seems a lot, compare that to 900 Billion charts that gets printed worldwide in a year.

Why the discrepancy? I think the reason is that there is no simple way to create and publish high-quality charts.

The most popular tool for creating charts is Microsoft Excel. However, Excel is not the best tool to create charts. Here are a few basic problems:

1. It is cumbersome to create charts on Excel
2. Excel created charts are not the best looking charts
3. There is no interactivity in the resulting charts. In fact, the resulting chart is an image.
4. Putting up an excel created chart online is similar to posting an image online.
5. Excel charts are not searchable (yet)

The Solution

iCharts!

iCharts is a web-based service that makes creating and publishing interactive charts simple.

Here is a sample interactive chart created using iCharts. It took a fraction of the time it would have taken to create the same (but lower quality with no interactivity) chart using Excel. This iChart shows the medal tally from the recently concluded Olympics event.

You can see the expanded version of the iChart here.

The Invitation

iCharts is a free service. However, there is a premium version where you can download iCharts to embed them into office applications or in PDF documents

For a limited time (until we reach our target premium beta accounts) you can use the following code to get a premium beta account on iCharts

Invitation Code: rsettypremium6109

Welcome and experience creating and publishing interactive charts!

Should your new startup have competition or no competition (you can always dream, right)

If you do have competition, the question that comes up is defensibility. What can you do to become a leader in the space and what IP (intellectual property) do you have that will put a barrier to entry for the competition?

On the other hand, if you try to do something that nobody has ever done ( almost saying you have no competition) then the question is “whether there is a market for what you are doing”. In other words, you might have built a “cat trap” but does anyone want it?

Have a great morning!

Focus!

A pessimist will focus on at least ONE problem in the midst of all the available opportunities.

An optimist will focus on at least ONE opportunity in the middle of all the problems.

Paul Harvey said it right - “I have never seen a monument erected to a pessimist”

Have a great day ahead!

My new book will be titled

BRANDTASTIC!
Personal Branding 2.0

It is a book that has been in the works for close to 3 years. I almost thought I had completed the book. However, upon discussion three people who are helping me with my book (Peter Winick, Bill Sherman and Arun Nithyanandam) I realized that I need more Personal Branding stories.

That’s where I need your help.

If you have a great personal branding story, please share it with me. Or if you are amazed by the personal brand of someone that’s close to you, please ask them to share their story.

I will use a few of them in the upcoming book and in turn help you or them extend their personal brand!

You can send an email to “explore at foresightplus dot com”

Looking forward to it.

Thank you.

I saw this notice at the TechCrunch50 conference (which is simply awesome)

It says:

“$500 replacement fee for lost badges. NO EXCEPTIONS”

You can ask people to be careful with their badges because if they lose it, it adds cost to the organizers. Or simply announce a powerful (dis)incentive to make sure that they ARE careful with the badges

Have a great afternoon!

You can say something

OR

You can say something in a way that is memorable

Obviously when you are making an important statement, the second option is preferable. However, wanting to make a memorable statement alone won’t be sufficient to make a memorable statement. For one, it requires you to PREPARE.

Raj Raheja from Heartwood Studios pointed me to a video from the recently concluded NVision conference where the organizers made a “memorable” statement about the difference between a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

Watch this video (it’s only about 2 minutes) and you will see..

Have a great week ahead!

The typical rule is that higher the risk, higher is the reward.

It seems like people know this.

And many people say that they are willing to take the higher risk to get the higher reward.

However, lots of people will opt for conservative approach in terms of “risk tolerance” but still expect a higher reward.

The sad part is a large majority of people want higher rewards with almost no risk however odd it may sound.

At all levels, I think the probability of success is same.

In one case (high risk, high reward), small percentage of people win just because it is “high risk” and one thing going wrong may derail the whole project. Brilliant strategy and great execution by a superb team may provide a big win.

In the other case of fantasy world (very low risk, high reward) one may still win because there are always the case of lottery winners.

In both cases, media will scoop up the news and report it as if this is common - almost saying that “if they can do it, you can too”. In reality, the fact that media picked this up shows that it is uncommon - meaning “if they can do it, you may not be able to”

The big difference though, in the first case you, even when you fail, you will BECOME something that you will be proud of later.

All the best!!!

Learn.

I caught you there if you thought I was going to say “Lose”

As I am getting ready with my new book to be published soon (a few months away actually), my last book “Beyond Code” is still getting reviewed online. Here are two positive reviews and one negative review

Prem Rao at People at Work and Play says

One of the best books I have read in recent times has been Rajesh Setty’s “Beyond Code“. A little over 115 pages and an easy read. Written in a simple yet effective style, the book delivers what it seeks to do: Give the reader ideas to “learn to distinugish youreself in 9 simple steps.

Read more at “Prem Rao: Beyond Code by Rajesh Setty“

Adam Peterson at VipePower blog says

I’m not a computer programming consultant, or a computer programming anything really, but to be honest the book is more in the personal help genre and as a result, a valuable read for a broader audience. It brings up several great points - one of my favorite being the concept that “There are only two types of relationships, long term and very long term”

More at “Beyond Code - A Good Read“

Vimala Arul at Vimala Arul Blogs says

I did get bit of time to read Rajesh Setty’s “Beyond Code”. I didn’t get much out of that book. Whatever he has said, I have read it in the Opportunity supplement of “The Hindu” news paper. I follow most of that as well!

More at Vimala Arul Blogs

Like I said, sometimes I win and sometimes I …. learn

Thanks to all of you for reviewing the book. It means a lot to me. Special thanks to those of you who have gone the extra mile to sign up on my Facebook Fan Page.

I am big on personal branding. As I have observed before, it is now going to the other extreme. People are trying to make the most of the social tools  available out there but they are skipping a step. I want to write on that topic again and possibly simplify the message. So here we go:

I have seen personal branding process in many angles and the boxes change but the process almost remains the same. One approach can be DAARE:

1. Design (Knowing what brand to build)

2. Accomplish (make really meaningful contributions to the world and/or marketplace)

3. Amplify (using social tools)

4. Build Reputation (create a lasting impression)

5. Experience Benefits (It’s payback time)

The barrier to entry to social tools is quite low. That is making people follow a different approach - DAMN

1. Design (know what brand to build)

2. Amplify (use social tools right away - skip the accomplishment part)

3. Try to Monetize ( try to get an ROI)

4. See No Results (Of course, you know what happens)

In other words (and, on a lighter note) –

DAMN if you don’t DAARE!!!

Note:

You can download the eBook “Personal Branding for Technology Professionals” (PDF, 40 pages) for FREE. The eBook has been downloaded around 165,000 times so far. Thank you for your support. While the eBook is targeted at Technology Professionals, the concepts are applicable to any knowledge worker.

Have a great week ahead!

This presentation designed by Jeff Brenman of Apollo Ideas won the first prize in the SlideShare presentation contest. Apart from the presentation being brilliantly designed, the message is compelling.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Congrats Jeff!

Hat Tip: Guy Kawasaki