Media about Business Planning

I like doing radio and TV on my topics, meaning business planning, starting a business, small business, and growing a business. You can contact me directly for this or go through the Palo Alto Software media agency in the Contact page.

The One-Line Bio:

President and founder of Palo Alto Software, co-founder of Borland International, founder of bplans.com, author of books and software, teacher of entrepreneurship, blogger, father of five, married 38 years.

The Short Bio:

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 taught “Starting a Business” at the University of Oregon for nine years, part-time of course, while running my business. I am author of six books on business planning and related topics published by Entrepreneur Press, Harcourt Brace, and the like; the latest is The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, published by Entrepreneur Press in 2008. I was the sole author of Business Plan Pro, published by Palo Alto Software (except the code; we have a team for that). I’ve been a member of the Willamette Angel Conference, doing angel investment, since 2009; and I was investor lead in 2013. I have a Stanford MBA degree and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame.

Photos and bios for publication purposes:

Available for download in the Photos page and the bios page.

Suggested interview questions:

Not that I like to get questions in advance; I’d rather wing it. However, people ask, so here is a list of suggested interview questions.

4 thoughts on “Media about Business Planning”

  1. No offense, but I just connected to Borland’s website using the link provided above and you are not mentioned anywhere, let alone as a “co-founder”.

    The “co-founders” listed are:

    Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, and Mogens Glad

    There is no mention of you. Please explain.

    1. No offense taken … I might do a blog post on it some day, but it’s probably just self serving. Here’s the correct information, from Wikipedia, the same page I link to and you mention, in section 1.1 foundations, the second paragraph:

      “Borland successfully launched a series of blockbusters that included Sidekick, Turbo Pascal, SuperKey and Lightning, all developed in Denmark. According to the London IPO filings, the management team was Philippe Kahn as President, Spencer Ozawa as VP of Operations, Marie Bourget as CFO, Spencer Leyton as VP of business development, while all software development was continuing to take place in Denmark and later London as the Danish co-founders moved there. While the Danes remained majority shareholders, Board members were Philippe Kahn, Tim Berry, John Nash and David Heller. With the assistance of John Nash and David Heller, both British members of the Borland Board, the company was taken public on London’s Unlisted Securities Market (USM) in 1986. Shroders was the lead investment banker.”

      That’s at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland

      Which of course doesn’t prove anything, but it’s true, and my suggestion if you want to dig further is to ask Philippe Kahn, the founder. Or you could also consult the book “Fire in the Valley,” by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swain, second edition, beginning with a quote from me on page 196, at the beginning of the Borland chapter. I was one of four members of the original founding board, and I remained on the board until the company went public in 1986. I was never an employee, however.

      Borland has been bought and sold by investors several times over since Phillippe left. The company has no incentive to keep accurate history on its website. Although the three they do mention, Neils, Ole, and Mogens, were absolutely critical to the success from the very beginning — they were the actual programmers who did the real work.

      Thanks for checking.

      Tim

  2. Tim,

    I knew most of the people who were at Borland in their early years. I heard your name once or twice, as someone in the background, maybe having to do with consulting to the company. However, maybe you could clear-up the “co-founder” aspect by writing about the actual things you did at the company as co-founder. I think that would be interesting, even for me. I think I also remember another Berry who had some connection with the company, perhaps a lawyer, or ??

    Ted.

    1. Thanks Ted. Fascinating. Here I am commenting on my own bio, one of the little considered benefits (or disadvantages, possibly) of the comment facility in a blog-based platform. I did write my favorite story about the early days at Borland, in True Story: Entrepreneur Meets MBA, Do we all Undervalue Bootstrapping, Mistakes about Mistakes, and Is Startup Life Life? on my main blog. Oh, and yes, that other Berry, the lawyer? My brother, Frank.

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