Berry was born and raised in the U.S., but moved with his wife to Mexico City in 1971 where he worked as a wire service journalist for United Press International and then wrote for McGraw-Hill and Businessweek for five years.^[1][2] In 1976, betting on the devaluation of the peso, he and his wife put up $1000 and borrowed $4000 for a quarter-acre lot.^[1] After the peso lost its value in 1979, they sold the lot for $22,000 and used that money to help with as tuition at Stanford's business school. While at Stanford, Berry worked as a market research consultant for Creative Strategies International and began creating his own business planning software.^[1] He earned his MBA in 1981.^[2]

After graduating, Berry founded his own consulting practice in 1983. His clients included Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Ashton-Tate, Lotus Development Corporation, and others.^[1] That same year, he met Phillippe Kahn and helped draft a business plan that led to the launch of Borland International.^[1][3] In 1983, Berry founded his company, then called "Infoplan"; the name was changed to Palo Alto Software in 1988.^[4] The company started out selling business plan templates, supplemented by Berry's consulting, mostly focused on doing business in Latin America.^[2] The company moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1992^[2] and almost was bankrupt by 1994; Berry had three mortgages and $65,000 in credit card debt.^[5][6] In 1994, the company released the first version of its Business Plan Pro software,^[1] was created by programmers working for equity.^[5] The software-assisted users in creating business plans instead of simply providing templates, and was sold through retails stores; it became a successful product, with $2M in sales in the first year.^[5][7] In 1995, Berry launched BPlans.com as resource for small businesses.^[6] In 2000 the company had $5M in revenue and 35 employees, but with the crash of the dot-com bubble revenue fell and the company had to lay off five employees.^[6][8]

Sales recovered, and in 2010 the company had $10M in annual revenue.^[9] In that year, Berry's daughter, Sabrina Parsons, took over as CEO,^[10] and Berry began devoting this time to blogging, teaching, and writing.^[8]

Berry received an MBA from Stanford University. He earned an MA from the University of Oregon, and a BA from the University of Notre Dame.^[11]

Berry served as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Oregon.^[12]

Berry contributes content to various business-oriented websites, as well as his own blog^[13] and has become well known as an entrepreneur on Twitter.^[14][15][16]

He is the author of the following books:

• Berry, Tim (August 17, 2015). Lean Business Planning: Get What You Want From Your Business. Motivational Press. ISBN 9781628652130.
• Berry, Tim (2010). Sales and Market Forecasting for Entrepreneurs (Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management Collection). Business Expert Press. pp. 137 pages. ISBN 978-1-6064-9041-9.
• Berry, Tim (2008). 3 Weeks to Startup. Entrepreneur Press. pp. 378 pages. ISBN 978-1-5991-8196-7.
• Berry, Tim (2008). The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan. Entrepreneur Press. pp. 270 pages. ISBN 978-1-5991-8190-5.
• Berry, Tim (2006). Hurdle: The Book on Business Planning. Palo Alto Software, Inc. pp. 232 pages. ISBN 978-0-9712-1852-9.
• Berry, Tim & Wilson, Doug (2000). On Target : The Book on Marketing Plans. Palo Alto Software Inc. pp. 356 pages. ISBN 978-0-9664-8913-2.
• Berry, Tim (2000). CPA's Guide to Developing Effective Business Plans. Harcourt Brace Professional Pub. pp. 300 pages. ISBN 978-0-1560-6295-4.
• Berry, Tim (1989). Tim Berry's business plan toolkit. Palo Alto Software. pp. 152 pages. ASIN B00072ELLA.
• Berry, Tim (1985). Jazz: The Inside Track (A Byte Book). Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media. pp. 256 pages. ISBN 978-0-0700-5064-8.
• Berry, Tim (1984). Working smart with electronic spreadsheets: Models for managers. Hayden. pp. 182 pages. ISBN 978-0-8104-6203-8.

Berry has been married to his wife since 1970. He has five children.^[7]

• Official Site