Storytelling With Data

What Storytelling With Data does

Storytelling With Data (legal entity: Storytelling with Data LLC) is a privately held, bootstrapped education and content company founded by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, a former Google People Analytics manager and five-time best-selling author. The company teaches a structured methodology for communicating with data, covering context analysis, chart selection, clutter elimination, attention focus, design thinking, and storytelling, which is delivered through books, customized enterprise team trainings, public workshops, an 8-week online course, on-demand video learning, and a children's book sub-brand (Daphne Draws Data). It does not operate a proprietary technology platform; delivery runs on Zoom, Squarespace, Tito.io, and Mailchimp, with exercises provided in Excel and solutions demonstrated across Tableau, Power BI, Python, R, Datawrapper, Flourish, and Google Data Studio.

SWD serves three primary customer segments: business professionals who need to communicate data to colleagues or leadership (the primary persona), organizations that purchase customized team trainings (with named enterprise customers spanning Google, Adobe, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, P&G, NASA, Hilton, MetLife, Standard Chartered, Kaiser Permanente, John Deere, L'Oréal, Robert Bosch, and others), and universities and high schools that adopt the original book as a textbook at 100+ institutions globally. Secondary segments include children and parents reached via the Daphne Draws Data sub-brand, and an online practitioner community. The book series is translated into dozens of languages and is supported by a free content ecosystem (blog, podcast, YouTube, Excel tutorials, chart guide, makeovers) and a premium community subscription that provides weekly office hours and the full video library.

The business generates revenue from four streams: enterprise team training sessions (professional services, quote-based with multi-year contracts), self-serve enrollment in public workshops and the 8-week online course (described as subscription/recurring), book sales across print, Audible, and bulk through Wiley (one-time license), and the premium community subscription (recurring). Distribution combines direct enterprise sales, self-serve website enrollment, university curriculum adoption, and retail book distribution. The team is small (~9-10 named individuals plus April 2026 hires), distributed across the US and London, founder-owned, and operating from Milwaukee.

Name

Storytelling With Data

Legal name

Storytelling with Data LLC

Website

https://storytellingwithdata.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Storytelling With Data is a bootstrapped education company founded by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic that teaches data visualization and storytelling methodology to business professionals, enterprise teams, and universities through bestselling books, customized training, and an online community.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Training & Education

NAICS

Computer Training (611420), Professional and Management Development Training (611430)

akta.pro primary industry

Data Storytelling & Collaborative Analytics (HDAEAMAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data, Analytics & Business Intelligence (SQL, BI Tools, Reporting) (EDABAFAD), Data Science & Analytics (Data Literacy, SQL, Visualization) (EDAMACAF)

Keywords

• Data visualization training
• Data storytelling workshops
• Corporate training services
• Professional education books
• Data communication coaching

Headquarters

HQ city

Milwaukee

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Team Training Sessions: Customized on-site and virtual workshops for organizations, where content is tailored with examples from the client's own work. Sold directly as enterprise engagements, with pricing based on session length and group size.
2. Public Workshops and Online Course: Individual enrollment in public workshops (single sessions) or the 8-week multimedia online course combining lectures, reading, videos, podcasts, exercises, and a course project.
3. Book Sales: Sale of books (print and Audible/audiobook formats) through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight, and bulk orders via Wiley. Titles include: storytelling with data (original), storytelling with data: let's practice!, storytelling with you, storytelling with data: before & after, and Daphne Draws Data (children's book).
4. Premium Community Subscription: Premium subscription to the SWD community provides direct access to the SWD team through weekly office hours, full video library, and regular virtual events.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Storytelling With Data teaches professionals and organizations how to communicate effectively with data through customized team training sessions, public workshops, an 8-week multimedia online course, on-demand learning, and a series of books on data visualization and storytelling. Offerings are anchored on a structured data storytelling methodology developed by founder Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, and delivered via direct enterprise sales, individual self-serve enrollment, and book retail channels.

Product overview

Storytelling With Data is an educational content company offering a portfolio of books, training services, and free resources. Their core products include the foundational 'storytelling with data' book and its follow-ups ('before & after', 'let's practice!', 'storytelling with you'), plus the children's book 'Daphne Draws Data'. Training offerings span team trainings, public workshops, 8-week online courses, and on-demand learning. The company also provides free resources including a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, community platform, Excel tutorials, chart guide, and makeover examples. The ecosystem works together to teach data visualization and presentation skills through multiple modalities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Daphne Draws Data: Children's educational brand focused on teaching data literacy to kids through the story of Daphne the dragon. Includes the children's book 'Daphne Draws Data' and companion website daphnedrawsdata.com.

Products and services

• Team Trainings

Quantifiable outcome

• The storytelling with data book has been used as a textbook by more than 100 universities and translated into a dozen languages
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers26 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Coursera: A large MOOC platform with data visualization and data storytelling courses from multiple institutions. Competes for self-paced individual learners and provides an alternative channel where SWD-style content is also available, often at lower price points.
• DataCamp: A larger, well-capitalized online data skills learning platform with courses on data visualization, SQL, and BI tools. Targets a similar individual practitioner learner with self-paced video courses, and competes with SWD's online course and public workshops for the same audience.

Direct peers

• Juice Analytics: A data visualization consulting and training firm that helps organizations communicate data more effectively, offering workshops and custom engagements that overlap with SWD's team training and methodology positioning.
• PolicyViz: A data visualization consulting and training practice run by Jonathan Schwabish, offering workshops, books, and resources focused on data visualization for professionals — a direct niche competitor to SWD in data communication training.
• Nancy Duarte / DataStory: Duarte is a closely adjacent competitor in the data storytelling/presentation space, offering books, workshops, and a similar methodology (the 'Duarte DataStory' framework) taught by a well-known author/presenter to enterprise audiences — a near-direct alternative to SWD.

Emerging players

• Brent Dykes: Author of 'Effective Data Storytelling' and a recognized data storytelling consultant/speaker who offers training and advisory services — a single-expert alternative in the same niche as SWD's training and book offerings.
• Data Literacy Academy: A training provider focused on enterprise data literacy programs, offering workshops and consulting that overlap with SWD's team training in teaching organizations to work more effectively with data.
• Information is Beautiful (David McCandless): A data visualization author and creator offering books, talks, and workshops on presenting data beautifully. Operates in the same data storytelling education niche with a more design-forward angle, competing for keynote and workshop attention.
• Maven: A cohort-based learning platform hosting live, instructor-led courses taught by practitioners. Competes for the same professional audience seeking live, expert-led data and analytics training, with a similar high-touch, expert-instructor model.
• ChartSpark (Alli Torban): A data visualization newsletter/course brand by Alli Torban, now also a Data Storyteller at SWD. Targets the same individual practitioner audience with educational content, and represents a partial in-housing/adjacent asset rather than a pure competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/storywithdata
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCjhGlILWNloXJdR2NTCBMlA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/storytelling-with-data-llc
• Facebookfacebook.com/storywithdata

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Storytelling With Data