Everything about Marc Andreessen totally explained
Marc Andreessen (born
July 9,
1971, in
Cedar Falls, Iowa and raised in
New Lisbon, Wisconsin,
United States) is one of the most successful entrepreneurs (called a Silicon Valley "whiz kid" ), startup coach, blogger, investor, and a multi-millionaire software engineer best known as co-author of
Mosaic, the first widely-used
web browser, and co-founder of
Netscape Communications Corporation. He was the chair of
Opsware, a
software company he founded originally as Loudcloud, when it was acquired by
Hewlett-Packard. He is also a cofounder of
Ning, a company which provides a platform for social-networking websites.
Education
Andreessen received his
Bachelor's degree in
computer science from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As an undergraduate, he interned one summer at
IBM in
Austin,
Texas,
United States. He also worked at the university's
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where he became familiar with
Tim Berners-Lee's open standards for the
World Wide Web. Andreessen and a full-time salaried co-worker
Eric Bina worked on creating a user-friendly browser with integrated graphics that would work on a wide range of computers. The resulting code was the Mosaic web browser.
Netscape
After his graduation from the university in 1993, Andreessen moved to
California to work at
Enterprise Integration Technologies. Andreessen then met with
Jim Clark, the recently-departed founder of
Silicon Graphics. Clark believed that the Mosaic browser had great commercial possibilities and suggested starting an Internet software company. Soon
Mosaic Communications Corporation was in business in
Mountain View,
California, with Andreessen as cofounder and vice president of technology. The University of Illinois was unhappy with the company's use of the Mosaic name, so Mosaic Communications changed its name to Netscape Communications, and its flagship web browser was the
Netscape Navigator.
In the year between the formation of the company and its IPO, Andreessen engaged in extensive public outreach on behalf of his vision of the web browser's potential, something he'd in fact done continuously since making the decision to distribute Mosaic for free via the Internet.
One of these events, hosted by Internet commercialization pioneer
Ken McCarthy, was captured on
video (External Link
) and provides a unique look at the state of the web between the time Andreessen and his colleagues launched Mosaic and the time when web browsers and servers became mainstream commercial products. At the time of the recording, Andreessen was 23 years old.
Netscape's
IPO in 1995 propelled Andreessen into the public's imagination. Featured on the cover of
Time and other publications, Andreessen became the poster-boy
wunderkind of the
Internet bubble generation: young, twenty-something, high-tech, ambitious, and worth millions (or billions) of dollars practically overnight.
Netscape's success attracted the attention of
Microsoft, which recognized the web's potential and wanted to put itself at the forefront of the rising Internet revolution. Microsoft licensed the Mosaic source code from
Spyglass, Inc., an offshoot of the University of Illinois, and turned it into
Internet Explorer. The resulting battle between the two companies became known as the
Browser Wars.
Netscape was acquired in 1999 for $4.2 billion by
AOL, which made Andreessen its
Chief Technology Officer.
Loudcloud
However, he'd soon leave to form
Loudcloud, a services-based
Web hosting company that underwent an IPO in 2001. Loudcloud sold its hosting business to
EDS and changed its name to
Opsware in 2003, where Andreessen served as
chairman. Opsware was purchased by Hewlett-Packard in September 2007 for approximately $1.6 billion.
Current ventures
Andreessen is an investor in social news website
Digg and several other early-stage technology startups, like
Plazes and
Twitter. His latest project is
Ning, which launched in October 2005. He serves on the board of
Open Media Network, a combined Kontiki (VeriSign) client and media player, launched in 2005. Andreessen is now active in the blogging community. You can check out his blog at: http://blog.pmarca.com/
Personal life
Andreessen is married to Laura Arrillaga, who is the chairwoman of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund
(External Link), and the daughter of Silicon Valley real estate billionaire
John Arrillaga.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Marc Andreessen'.
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