Doug Richard: The dragon roars
Article Date: Mar 18 2005
Radical opportunism is king
His other staple rule is to avoid saying no in a business situation. ‘One of my entrepreneurial characteristics is that I’m a radical opportunist,’ he claims. ‘In business, I learned very early on that you just don’t say no. You say yes, or maybe, or let’s go and have a coffee, but never just a no. I’m always open to a conversation.’
‘For instance, I’m more than happy to sell someone something before I can deliver it! I call it growing into my brand,’ he teases. ‘When you never say no, you give yourself a shot at winning.
‘With Visual Software, we got to market with a 3D technology, before the PCs were actually ready for it. When they were ready, we showcased our technology by building a demonstration kit for a stand. Even though it wasn’t a product yet, we told people that it was. Did I have a product or a price? No. But by the end of that show, we’d booked orders. And that went on to become the company, selling 3D technology applications to the PC market.’
Make noise, break rules!
Richard also flirted with aggressive marketing in his Micrografx days. ‘We wanted to get our graphics software title FlowCharter on to people’s play lists, so we hired an independent firm to say FlowCharter was superior to our rival product.
We bundled this up into a white paper and put together an ad campaign in PC and software magazines saying, ‘independent analysts say FlowCharter is better.’ We even sent that report to the rival CEO! Don’t be afraid to break the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable. Get out there and make noise – break the rules.’
Richard’s ‘unswerving’ investment rules
His tendency towards the maverick has coloured his approach to investing at Cambrige Investors. When his group invests it needs to have ‘faith’ in the entrepreneur it backs and a strong ‘belief’ in the innovative qualities of the business. And of course, there has to be a real market to exploit and good terms for coming on board.
‘These are really the only things to be considered, and every angel considers them whether he knows it or not.’
Richard places most emphasis on the importance of the entrepreneur. ‘If he/she doesn’t have the right attitude, I won’t invest. I have to believe in the entrepreneur because the unexpected will always occur and they have to be able to adapt.’
Unlike some, he also weighs up the time he can devote to a company. ‘Your biggest restriction as an angel investor is your ability to time-slice,’ he muses. ‘I’m never a passive angel. I’m very exit-oriented’, he wryly smiles. ‘ROI is key for me.’
The first UK firm that received his unique take on angel investing was Designer Servers, a Manchester-based company that was eventually sold to Business Serve (a communications provider now quoted on AIM). ‘That was a clean transaction, really a model for angel investing. I put in a small amount, spent one full day with them every two weeks, and I was the only investor in that business, ever.’
As for his TV investor career, it speaks volumes about his approach to life that he is already speaking in boastful terms about Tracey Graily, the lady who runs women’s made-to-measure clothing company, Grails. ‘She’s one heck of a lady,’ exclaims Richard, who invested along with his fellow dragon Rachel Elnaugh (the founder of Red Letter Days). ‘The company’s off the ground and it’s out there in the market – so far so good,’ he reflects.
