Doug Richard of School for Startups

Doug Richard is a successful entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in the development and leadership of technology and software ventures. Doug has always been a champion for startups and small businesses and after featuring in the first two series of BBC2's Dragon's Den, Doug founded School for Startups to support entrepreneurs around the country. Doug has now taught and inspired thousands of entrepreneurs at School for Startups events and is now working hard to make sure there is sufficient support from government to allow enterprise in the UK to thrive.

DOUG'S FAVOURITE SITES

Globalista - One of the nicest most well thought out travel sites on the web. There's so much travel content online, if you believed everything you read you'd soon find every hotel is awful, every hotel is perfect, every restaurant is a hidden gem and every restaurant is an overcrowded tourist trap. Globalista cuts through the clutter to create a single report outlining only what you really need to know when visiting a destination. Very useful for the time poor.

Lady Ben - Despite the name, the best classic yacht porn. Boats are my weakness and you'll find some of the most beautiful boats you can imagine being traded on this site as it connects boating enthusiasts from all over the world.

Google - I don't actually know anything anymore, I have Google. It's a very lazy trait to always think 'Google it' is the solution to many of your problems but hey, it's nice not to have to think and it works. Imagine if Google crashed, what would the world do?

FMyLife - It is the funniest site on the web. If you're having a bad day, you can log on to this simple site and be comforted by the fact that other people are having a more ridiculous day than you are. Of course, if your own story tops them all you can submit your own and have the thousands of people in the FML community vote on whether they pity you or whether you think you deserved it. Most amusing.

School for Startups - If I do say so myself, this is one of the best resources for improving your business or starting a new one. Even if it's just checking out my ranting blog posts on the lack of proper support for enterprise in the UK or watching some of the short business advice videos, you'll find something useful if you own a business, manage a business or market a business.
 
British Library Business & IP Centre - Another great resource for startups and SMEs,  funded by the London Development Agency. It offers a huge amount of free support to businesses. It always surprises me how so few people know about it, it's fantastic for small businesses.
 
13 April 10