Doug Richard’s School For Startups at the University of Leicester 10/05/10

On 10th May, Doug Richard (@DougRichard), of Dragon’s Den fame, brought his School For Startups (@s4s) to the University of Leicester (@UniofLeics ) to deliver a 6 hour workshop called “Start Here! Starting and Growing a Successful Business”. I was in the audience and here are my impressions of the event.

The first thing that struck me was the Twitter stream being projected onto the wall next to the slides. This allowed people to interact with Doug without interrupting the presentation; he could glance over the tweets when convenient for him and respond to any interesting ones. The Twitter stream also allowed people who weren’t physically present to interact with Doug, since the workshop was being live streamed for free. I thought this was a great idea because it meant even if you couldn’t physically get to the venue, you could still get some of the benefit of being there. In a way, it’s a kind of freemium business model, because even though you can watch for free, you don’t have the same opportunity to ask questions and get involved with the workshop as the paying attendees in the physical audience do. Since School4Startups is a social enterprise, live streaming also allows them to spread their message to a wider audience improving their reach.

The workshop itself was part-lecture, part-coaching. Doug’s lecture was based around twelve questions you need to be able to answer to grow a successful business. For me, these questions could easily be used to put together a good business plan and then used throughout the life of the business to ensure its growth. The coaching part consisted of entrepreneurs from the audience volunteering themselves to step into Doug’s spotlight so he could advise them on how to approach their business challenges, which was great to see how an entrepreneur picks apart the problems and opportunities they face.

Doug delivered a very natural presentation, as you may well expect of a seasoned entrepreneur, without relying on any obvious notes or prompts. The slides were light on information, but related to what Doug was saying, so they focussed attention on his words. The workshop was enriched by Doug’s various anecdotal examples, illustrations, and humour, as well as light hearted delivery style.

Walking away from the event I reflected the most valuable thing to be gained from an event like this is being able to get inside the head of a successful entrepreneur and learn a little about their mindset and perspective on the world. If you’re able to practise that you can start making similar insights into the challenges in your life and spotting opportunities others may miss.

I think I can summarise the event by saying that growing a successful business is a matter of asking the right questions, finding the answers, and acting on them. I definitely enjoyed it, and will be looking out for future School4Startups events and live webcasts.