Marco Börries

Marco Börries (born 1 August 1968) is a German IT entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of Star Division, who developed StarOffice, which later became OpenOffice.org.

Börries founded Star Division at 16, launching the word processor StarWriter, which later became StarOffice, the foundation of OpenOffice and LibreOffice. He also founded Star Finanz, a home banking software provider, and later founded VerdiSoft, which developed Yahoo! Go technology. After selling VerdiSoft to Yahoo, Börries founded NumberFour AG, providing an open software platform for small businesses under the brand name Enfore. He was also involved in other ventures like Ad hoc Mobile GmbH and Mag10 GmbH, which did not reach market entry.

Career

Inspired by a student exchange program to Silicon Valley while he attended a Gymnasium in Lüneburg, Marco Börries founded Star Division as a garage company at the age of 16. As its first product the company distributed StarWriter, a word processor application developed by friends,