Marc Lowell Andreessen[pronunciation?] (born July 9, 1971) is an American businessman and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard; he also co-founded Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites. He is an inductee in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame. Andreessen's net worth is estimated at $1.7 billion.
Early life and education
Andreessen was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and raised in New Lisbon, Wisconsin.[2] He is the son of Patricia and Lowell Andreessen, who worked for a seed company.[3] In December 1993,[2] he received his bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC).[4] As an undergraduate, he interned twice at IBM in Austin, Texas.[5] He worked in the AIX graphics software development group responsible for the MIT X Window implementation and ports of the 3D language APIs: SGI's Graphics Language (GL) and PHIGS.[citation needed] He also worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, where he became familiar with Tim Berners-Lee's open standards for the World Wide Web. After being shown the ViolaWWW graphic web browser in late 1992, Andreessen and full-time salaried co-worker Eric Bina worked on creating a browser with integrated graphics that could be ported to a wide range of computers, including Windows. The result was the Mosaic web browser released in 1993.[6]
In the Web's first generation, Tim Berners-Lee launched the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and HTML standards with prototype Unix-based servers and browsers. A few people noticed that the Web might be better than Gopher. In the second generation, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina developed NCSA Mosaic at the University of Illinois. Several million then suddenly noticed that the Web might be better than sex.
— Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, August 21, 1995, Vol. 17, Issue 34.[7]
Career
Andreessen in 2004
Andreessen has worked at Netscape, Opsware, founded Andreessen Horowitz, and invested in many successful companies including Facebook, Foursquare, GitHub, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter.[8]
Netscape
After graduating from UIUC in 1993, Andreessen moved to California to work at Enterprise Integration Technologies. Andreessen then met with Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics, who had recently exited the firm. Clark believed 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 co-founder 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.[9]
Netscape's IPO in 1995 put Andreessen in the public eye. He was on the cover of Time[10][11] and other publications.[12]
Netscape was acquired in 1999 for $4.3 billion by AOL. Andreessen's hiring as its chief technical officer was contingent on the completion of the acquisition.[13] The same year, he was named to the MIT Technology ReviewTR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[14]
Opsware
After AOL acquired Netscape in late 1998, Andreessen founded Opsware with Ben Horowitz, Tim Howes, and In Sik Rhee.[15] Originally named Loudcloud, the company provided computing, hosting and software services to consumer-facing internet and e-commerce companies. Loudcloud sold its hosting business to EDS and changed its name to Opsware in 2003, with Andreessen serving as chairman. Acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in 2007, it was one of the first companies to offer software as a service and to attempt cloud hosting.[16]
Andreessen Horowitz
Between 2005 and 2009, Andreessen and Horowitz separately invested a total of $80 million in 45 startups, including Twitter and Qik.[17] The two became well known as super angel investors.[17] On July 6, 2009, Andreessen and Horowitz announced their Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.[18]
Investments
Andreessen Horowitz began with an initial capitalization of $300 million;[19] within three years the firm grew to $2.7 billion under management across three funds.[20] In 2012, Andreessen Horowitz's portfolio holdings included Facebook, Foursquare, GitHub, Pinterest, Twitter, and Honor, Inc.[21]
On September 1, 2009, an investor group that included Andreessen Horowitz acquired a majority stake in Skype at a valuation of $2.75 billion,[22] which was considered risky.[23] The deal paid off in May 2011 when Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion.[23] In 2010, the firm assisted Silicon Valley attorney Ted Wang in creating the first free standardized seed round financing documents, the Series Seed Documents.[24]
Andreessen joined the eBay board of directors in 2008 and served on it for six years.[25] In October 2014, he announced his resignation from the board due to the company's decision to break off its online payments unit PayPal. The decision to cut ties with PayPal was a point of contention between Andreessen and investor Carl Icahn. Icahn advocated for the PayPal split while Andreessen opposed the spin-off, resulting in public disputes. Andreessen was accused by Icahn of putting his own interests in front of what was best for shareholders. Icahn published his argument in an open letter that detailed alleged conflicts of interest in eBay's 2009 sale of Skype to a group of private investors, which included Andreessen's firm.[26]
Industry influence
Andreessen advises the leaders of companies in which Andreessen Horowitz invests, including Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Mark Pincus of Zynga.[27]
Andreessen and Horowitz were ranked No. 6 on Vanity Fair's 2011 New Establishment List,[28] no. 1 on CNET's 2011 most influential investors list[29] and Nos. 2 and 21, respectively, on the 2012 ForbesMidas List of Tech's Top Investors.[30]
In April 2012, Andreessen and Andreessen Horowitz General Partners Ben Horowitz, Peter Levine, Jeff Jordan, John O'Farrell, and Scott Weiss pledged to donate half their lifetime incomes from venture capital to charitable organizations.[31]
In 2012, Andreessen was named in the Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world assembled by Time.[32] His essay "Software is eating the world" has been influential and widely cited.[33][34][35][36]
In April 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Andreessen published an opinion article, "It's time to build", describing the United States' COVID-19 response and suggesting technological and cultural solutions to the problem.[38][39]
In October 2023, Andreessen published a "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" arguing that civilization is built on technology and that "Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress, and the realization of our potential."[40] He has also described himself as a "tescrealist".[41]
Ventures
Andreessen cofounded and chaired Ning, the third company he established, after Netscape and Loudcloud.[42] In September 2011, it was announced that Ning had been sold to Mode Media for a reported price of $150 million. Andreessen joined Glam Media's board of directors after the sale.[43]
He is a personal investor in companies including LinkedIn[33] and boutique bank Raine.[44]
In February 2016, Andreessen posted a tweet in response to India's decision to apply net neutrality to Facebook's proposed project Free Basics. The tweet suggested that anti-colonialism had been catastrophic for the Indian people. Andreessen later deleted the tweet following criticism from Indians and non-Indians alike (including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg).[59][60][61] Facebook spent millions advertising Free Basics to the Indian public.[62] The project failed due to violations, setting preferential tariffs in accessing content and setting up a "walled garden" on the internet.[63][64]
Conflict of interest
In April 2016, Facebook shareholders filed a class action lawsuit to block Zuckerberg's plan to create a new class of non-voting shares. The lawsuit alleges Andreessen secretly coached Zuckerberg through a process to win board approval for the stock change, while Andreessen served as an independent board member representing stockholders.[65]
According to court documents, Andreessen shared information with Zuckerberg about their progress and concerns and helped Zuckerberg negotiate against shareholders. Court documents included transcripts of private texts between Zuckerberg and Andreessen.[66]
Andreessen married Laura Arrillaga in 2006.[67] She is the founder of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund and daughter of Silicon Valley real estate billionaire John Arrillaga. They have one son together.
In 2009, Andreessen issued a $25,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the 1987 unsolved murder of Barbara Blackstone, a teacher from New Lisbon High School in Wisconsin, where he had attended. At this time the case remains unsolved.
In 2021, he and his wife bought a property in Malibu for $177 million from Serge and Florence Azria. This was the highest price paid for a California property at that time.[68] As of February 2023, his net-worth is estimated at $1.7 billion by Forbes.[69]
In 2022, Andreessen advocated against the construction of 131 multifamily housing units in their affluent Atherton, California town.[70] In a letter, Andreessen and his wife wrote that they opposed permitting more than one house on a single acre of land.[71] Andreessen's comments sparked criticisms of hypocrisy, as he had previously argued for increased housing supply, in particular in California.[71][70]
Politics
In 2012, Andreessen expressed some support for Republican candidate Mitt Romney.[72] During the 2016 primary season, he endorsed Republican candidate Carly Fiorina, but after Fiorina dropped out of the race, Andreessen switched his endorsement to the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, citing the Republican nominee Donald Trump's immigration stance.[73][74]
In July 2024, Andreessen announced he will donate to Super PACs that support Donald Trump's presidential campaign.[75]
Andreessen is a mega-donor to the political superPAC and pro-cryptocurrency advocacy group Fairshake.[76] Andreessen came out against president Joe Biden's reelection bid fearing higher taxes on billionaires and stricter regulations on industries he invests in (cryptocurrency and AI).[77] He has since come out in support of Donald Trump.
^Alan Levenson (photo credit) (April 13, 1998). "04/13/19 Cover Story". Businessweek. Archived from the original on November 4, 1999. Retrieved September 28, 2007.
^ abWong Kromhout, Wileen. "Ben Horowitz MS '90". Alumni Profiles. UCLA Engineering. Archived from the original on December 12, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
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