Book excerpt: Communicating your idea in a clear, compelling, and persuasive manner is critical when trying to launch a new venture. This Harvard Business Review collection brings together two popular books to help you craft your story, design better visualizations, impress your audience, and turn your idea into reality. Understanding and using data viz to persuade is a must-have skill for anyone in business today--especially if you're launching a new venture. In Good Charts, dataviz maven Scott Berinato provides an essential guide to how visualization works. Berinato lays out a system for thinking visually and building better charts through a process of talking, sketching, and prototyping. How do you launch the venture of your dreams? In Get Backed, entrepreneurs Evan Baehr and Evan Loomis argue that it's not just about securing startup funding. It's about building the right relationships, crafting a compelling story, and creating the perfect pitch deck. Filled with proven tips, exercises, and templates, this book shows the process for how to successfully communicate your vision. Good Charts will help you turn plain, uninspiring charts that merely present information into smart, effective visualizations that powerfully convey ideas. Get Backed will show you exactly what it takes to get funded and will give you the tools to launch a new venture. Together, these books will help you bring your idea to life.