“With the entire economy dripping into oblivion I decided to start the week off on a bright note,” Doug Richard told Startups on Monday. The former Dragon, serial entrepreneur and investor was promoting his upcoming Big Fish Bootcamp, aimed at supporting early stage companies and budding entrepreneurs assess and develop their ideas.
Doug sees the bootcamp, and his involvement with organisers EEDA, as a natural progression from the Richard Review which was published in May outlining his recommendations for streamlining small business support.
“It’s my intent to be able to prove there are effective ways to help people start businesses. I’m not a huge fan of many of the programmes in place and I’ve been very public about that. But if you just stand still and criticise you’re not really stepping up to the bar.”
Although the bootcamp, taking place on the 6 October, is for entrepreneurs in the east of England, Doug says the curriculum is one that can be rolled out across the country. His intentions are to attract people with an idea, and send them home with a better understanding of its quality, what their next steps should be, and how they can grow from there.
Ever the optimist on the resilience of enthusiastic entrepreneurs, Doug is not shying away from the global upsets of the week. “Some say there’s no better time to start a business than during a downturn. Some of my businesses started right in the middle of them.”
For more information on Big Fish visit http://www.bigfish4business.com/