This is Your Brain on Stories

By Tim Berry

“The people we are coupled to [meaning talking to, sharing a story with] define who we are.  And our desire to be coupled to another brain is something very basic that starts at a very young age. “ Fascinating research here summarized by neuroscientist Uri Hasson, on how our brains become aligned when we hear the... Read More »

Headlines: Naked, Vicious, Brutal, and So Forth

By Tim Berry

I was 26 years old. Married, already a father, but still, so young, and so full of illusions. I still thought – although I was starting to wonder – journalism could be about changing the world for the better. And not at all ready to accept the truth as Matt Kenny presented it to me... Read More »

State Supreme Court Decides in Favor of Nasty Reviews

By Tim Berry

The Oregon Supreme Court just reaffirmed the legal protection of nasty reviews as free speech. Which reminds me of the ongoing opportunity and problem of reviews. Amazon.com reviews, Yelp reviews, Google, TripAdvisor, and all of them are a combination of powerful, important, and yet also full of problems. Users care and we generally love the... Read More »

paper crumpled

My Dumb MBA Mistake

By Tim Berry

I’ve made a lot of mistakes. You can’t build a business from scratch without making mistakes. It’s an entire category on this blog, more than 150 posts. This dumb MBA mistake wasn’t my worst, but it’s one of the easiest to explain afterwards, and I hope one that might help others avoid making it too. There... Read More »

Business Plan Toolkit

How did Tim Berry grow Palo Alto software?

By Tim Berry

I was amused to check in with Quora this morning and find somebody had asked me to answer “How Did Tim Berry Grow Palo Alto Software?” Obviously that’s a question dear to my heart. So here’s what I answered, which seems fitting for this blog today. Not spending money we didn’t have Slowly, carefully, bolstered... Read More »

Do Big Tech Companies Become Too Big Not to Fail?

By Tim Berry

I caught this one yesterday on Medium: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast. It’s by Dare Obasanjo on Hacker Daily (great title, by the way). It’s a well-thought-out discussion of how Google and Facebook culture achieved a substantial shift of strategy in a way that others (Blockbuster facing Netflix, and Blackberry facing iPhone) couldn’t. Here’s the summary. “when... Read More »

Tim Berry mixergy interview

The Broken Spreadsheet That Birthed a Business

By Tim Berry

I thoroughly enjoyed doing this Mixergy Interview, published this week, about how I bootstrapped Palo Alto Software from zero to about $10 million annual revenues: It started one morning at 2 a.m., when I had to deliver a finished set of financials the next morning. It was 2 a.m. and I was tired and done with... Read More »

Required Reading on Business Owners Making Critical Mistakes

By Tim Berry

For a good time take a look at the answers to this question on Quora: What are some classic examples of a founder letting his or her ego get in the way of making the right decision for a company? Now yes, that’s one stellar example of a loaded question. But — loaded or not —... Read More »