We were telling you in an earlier post about the School for Startups program, one of the most important startups support programs in Europe, also present in Romania. We had the pleasure of having a little chat with Doug Richard, founder of School for Startups, one of the mentors of School for Startups Romania and one of the keynote speakers of this year’s How to Web conference.

How to Web: How did you decide to start the School for Startups program in Romania?
Doug Richard: I had a few meetings with the Post-Privatization Foundation and we decided a program would meet all their objectives and ours, so we launched the program. We have a shared interest in economic development through entrepreneurship.

How to Web: Do you notice major differences between the Romanian people you work with and the ones in Great Britain? What are the pluses and minus of Romanians?
Doug Richard: I get that question a lot.  I find no difference between entrepreneurs worldwide.  The vast majority of entrepreneurs I meet seem optimistic, helpful, hard working, determined, practical, pragmatic, aware of economic realities and visionary. They want to change their lives, change the lives of others and that intent reinvents the world we live in little by little every year.  There are entrepreneurs who don’t have these characteristics but they aren’t localized to Romania or anywhere else in the world.

How to Web: Could you tell us a few words about the way the S4S program is structured, and why does it make sense like that?
Doug Richard: I founded School for Startups after having been a successful entrepreneur and angel investor and I created the school I wished I could have attended when I launched my first business. Very little business training provided to startups is provided by people who have actually started a business.  Much of this training is targeted at providing support to “small businesses” but a startup is not a small business. It is a young business that is just pulling itself together so it can turn a profit. Many small businesses are very mature in that they’ve been running profitably for years. They are just small because that’s what their owner wanted them to be.  Our objective in teaching our courses is to help entrepreneurs understand what they have to do to build a working business from the ground up without massive investments of outside capital or interest bearing loans.

How to Web: What are the major topics your training sessions cover at S4S?
Doug Richard: We teach people how to find customers, how to design products and services that sell themselves, how to cut the costs associated with distributing products, how to evaluate the competition, how to set prices, how to sell and market online, and how to find outside investment when their business is ready.

How to Web: What do you think is the next big thing when it comes to web business?
Doug Richard: I think all business is web business.  I think the next huge disruption is probably going to be focused around the complete replacement of television and cable by the Internet.  I think people believe we’ve gone about as far as we can go down that road, but I think there are huge transitions still to come.

How to Web: Could you name one product that is a big success out there, that you would say, “Man, I wish I had created that!”?
Doug Richard: I can name too many to count.  I wish I’d invented Ebay, the iPad, Etsy, Google, Facebook, but there are only so many hours in the day.  I’m very proud of School for Startups, and I’m very proud of many of the companies I’ve helped to found and grow, so I don’t spend much time thinking about what could have been.

How to Web: Could you give us a glimpse of what your keynote at How to Web is going to be about?
Doug Richard: I’m going to tell people every business is a web business now. Not knowing how to use the Internet in every facet of business, from marketing and sales to distribution and customer support, is a fatal mistake that no enterprise can afford to make.  I’ll talk about social media and brand assassins and I’m sure I’ll share some case studies that show the power of the web in enterprise.