Founder Story
Twelve years ago, I published a set of visualizations built with open data from CBS, the Dutch national statistical office. A few days later, an email arrived: CBS asked me to come in and explain how I had made them. That moment stayed with me. It showed two things clearly — people need good data visuals, and many don't know how to create them.
I spent my career in IT, working at large and small companies, as a developer, consultant, trainer and scrummaster. The idea for a simple, flexible charting tool stayed in the background. Then my contract at Philips ended during a reorganization, and I suddenly had time and space to build the product I had been thinking about for years. I decided to use that moment.
Building charts that live
DataPicta is the result of that decision. It's a web application that lets anyone create interactive charts for the web — clickable, zoomable, and automatically responsive on mobile, tablet, and desktop. The full application is free to use. Publishing without a backlink requires a paid plan.
There are only a handful of competitors worldwide, and the market still has room for tools that focus on clarity, flexibility, and simplicity.
A lean approach
My previous company taught me to stay financially disciplined. DataPicta runs lean: a good computer, reliable hosting, and a few essential tools. Instead of broad advertising, I use targeted outreach. I look for potential users online and create a visualization based on one of their articles. It's a direct way to show what the product can do, and it works.
Solo entrepreneurship
My children are out of the house, and my wife works full-time. That gives me the space to fully commit to building DataPicta. Still, there's one thing I miss: the casual conversations you have with colleagues during a coffee break. Solo entrepreneurship means those moments disappear. I say that without drama, but also without pretending it isn't there.
Looking ahead
DataPicta started with a simple idea: make it easy for anyone to bring data to life on the web. That idea still guides everything I build. The product will continue to grow, but the principle stays the same — clarity, flexibility, and charts that live.
With warm regards,
Freddy Buskens
Freddy Buskens
Freddy Buskens - Founder of DataPicta.