About

I’m president and founder of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, and a co-founder of Borland International. I built Palo Alto Software from zero to 40 employees and 70% market share without outside investment. I developed the management team that now runs it. I’ve taught a class on starting a business at the University of Oregon, for 11 years; I do a SCORE workshop on business planning every quarter; and I am now doing guest teaching with two Small Business Development Centers.

I believe in business planning, and particularly a new updated kind of business planning that I call The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, which is, not entirely by coincidence, the title of my most recent business plan book, published last year by Entrepreneur Press.

I’m teach planning with my own company, at the University of Oregon and SCORE and several SBDCs, in published books and software, and in speaking engagements for the likes of Apple Computer, Autodesk, Progress Software, USASBE, Academy of Management, etc. I wrote The Plan-as-you-go Business Plan and other books on planning published by Harcourt Brace, McGraw-Hill, and Dow Jones-Irwin. I’m the principal author of Business Plan Pro. I’m also co author of 3 Weeks to Startup, published last year by Entrepreneur Press.

I’m blogging at my main blog, Planning Startups Stories, and my second blog, Up and Running at Entrepreneur.com, my third blog, Planning Demystified at allbusiness.com, and on Small Business Trends, Huffington Post, and Business in General.

As a consultant I worked with Apple Computer steadily for 14 years of repeat business — consultant, not an employee — doing (among other things) 14 years of annual plans for Apple Latin America, Apple Pacific, and Apple Japan. Apple Latin America grew from $2 million to $37 million annual sales while I was doing its annual business plans, and Apple Japan grew from $187 million to $1.5 billion in annual sales while I was doing its planning (not that my planning was responsible, but at least it didn’t screw it up). I have a Stanford MBA degree to add credibility (if an MBA degree adds credibility any more). For my recent views on business planning, I particularly like 10 Questions with Tim Berry on Guy Kawasaki’s blog and my post The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan on Planning Starting Stories.

I like writing. It reminds me of my first career as a journalist. I was night editor for UPI in Mexico City for three years, and McGraw-Hill World News correspondent for Mexico for five years. I wrote regularly for Business Week and other McGraw-Hill publications, and occasionally for Financial Times and others. I even wrote some published fiction — not counting market research — but it wasn’t very good. My first degree (Notre Dame) was in literature, my second (an MA from University of Oregon) was journalism.

I’ve seen startups and small business from multiple views. I’ve had the good years and bad years. My wife and I had three mortgages and $65,000 of credit card debt at one very low point, which we survived, but I really don’t recommend. I’ve landed investment from a Palo Alto venture capital firm and bought them back. I’ve consulted with venture capitalists on software startups, essentially kicking tires. I’ve consulted with startups on bringing in venture capital, and angel investors, and business loans, and friends and family. In 2009 I joined the Willamette Angel Conference, in which I am one of the member angel investors.

I like to think I’ve never lost track of what’s really important. I’d have to give my wife of 40 years credit for us still being married, three companies, five kids, 5 college educations, 2 graduate degrees, 7 jobs, and I forget how many mortgages later.

For media purposes, photos.htm and bios.htm have downloadable photos and bios for media use.