Over the past two years Andreessen has emerged as the most connected, prescient, right-place-right-time force in Silicon Valley. In addition to his Twitter stake, he sits on Facebook's board and advises the CEOs at both companies. He is co-founder and chairman of Ning, a service that lets people create their own niche social networks, like 50 Cent's ThisIs50.com. Ning, co-founded with CEO Gina Bianchini, adds 2.5 million members a month. Andreessen owns stakes in Digg, LinkedIn, and Will Ferrell's Funny or Die comedy site. He recently joined the board of eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) to help that company turn around, and he is the author of a hugely influential blog that went on hiatus in August 2008. By the time this story appears, he promises, the blog will be back with a new design.More at the link.
Entrepreneurs and investors seek him out for his blunt advice and because he's experienced the ups and especially the downs of life in the Valley. Netscape got trounced by Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500). Loudcloud, a too-early stab at so-called cloud computing services, had to retrench and lay off five-sixths of its employees before stabilizing under a new name, Opsware. Just five years ago Andreessen's image was more that of a smart, amiable billionaire playboy who dabbled ineffectually at technology's fringes. He seemed more Paul Allen than Bill Gates. "Marc is like a rock star who had his first album hit big, and then the next ones were not quite the same," says Steve Case, who ran AOL when it bought Netscape in 1999 and made Andreessen AOL's chief technology officer. "There's a lot of respect for the fact that he persevered. He evolved a couple of times and ultimately succeeded."
Could Andreessen end up becoming the next great tech investor? He certainly is taking a great leap: There's a huge difference between dabbling in startups with your own pocket change and investing big slugs of institutional money. Expectations for Andreessen's venture may be especially high. Venture capitalists are always on the lookout for the "next Netscape," a game-changing company that can produce off-the-charts financial returns for its initial investors; now imagine the pressure the co-founder of the original Netscape faces. Sure, Andreessen has been on a roll of late, but can he maintain his startup-picking hot streak? And so, at the ripe old age (by Silicon Valley standards) of 38, Andreessen is once again having to prove that he still has not only tech chops, but financial and management savvy too.
Also, the New York Times, "Venture Capitalists Look for a Return to the ABC's."
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