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Marc Andreessen

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Article Genealogy
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Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreessen
source
NameMarc Andreessen
CaptionAndreessen in 2014
Birth date9 July 1971
Birth placeCedar Falls, Iowa, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
OccupationEntrepreneur, investor, software engineer
Known forCo-authoring Mosaic, co-founding Netscape, Andreessen Horowitz
SpouseLaura Arrillaga-Andreessen (m. 2006)
Net worth$1.7 billion (2021, Forbes)

Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer who played a pivotal role in popularizing the World Wide Web. He co-authored the Mosaic web browser and co-founded the Netscape Communications Corporation, which ignited the dot-com boom of the 1990s. In 2009, he co-founded the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, becoming one of the most influential figures in the technology industry.

Early life and education

Born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, he grew up in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, where his father worked for the Lands' End catalog company. Showing an early aptitude for technology, he taught himself the BASIC programming language from a library book. He attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a bachelor's degree in computer science. While working at the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), he was exposed to the early Internet and the nascent World Wide Web.

Career

At the NCSA, alongside Eric Bina, he led the development of Mosaic, the first widely used graphical web browser with integrated multimedia. After graduating, he moved to California and, with Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics, co-founded Netscape Communications Corporation in 1994. The company's flagship product, the Netscape Navigator browser, quickly dominated the market and led to a historic initial public offering in 1995. Following Netscape's acquisition by AOL in 1999, he briefly served as the company's Chief Technology Officer. He later co-founded Loudcloud, which transformed into the software company Opsware, sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2007. He also served on the board of directors for companies like Facebook, a position he held from 2008 to 2018.

Investments and ventures

He is a co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that has invested in hundreds of technology startups, including early stakes in Twitter, Airbnb, Lyft, Pinterest, and Coinbase. The firm is known for its "software is eating the world" thesis and has funded companies across sectors like biotechnology, cryptocurrency, and enterprise software. His personal angel investments prior to the fund included successful bets on companies such as LinkedIn and Digg. He is also a co-creator of the Ning social platform and has served as an advisor to numerous Fortune 500 companies and startups.

Views and public statements

A prolific commentator, he is known for his optimistic, technology-centric worldview, famously articulated in the 2011 essay "Why Software Is Eating the World" published in The Wall Street Journal. He is a vocal advocate for techno-optimism, bitcoin, and artificial intelligence, often debating critics on platforms like the social media site X. He has authored the "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" and frequently critiques what he views as excessive caution in fields like cryptocurrency regulation and biotech innovation. His perspectives often generate significant discussion within the tech community and financial press like Bloomberg News.

Personal life

In 2006, he married philanthropist and author Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, the daughter of Silicon Valley real estate magnate John Arrillaga. The couple are prominent philanthropists, having signed The Giving Pledge and made major donations to institutions like Stanford University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They reside in Atherton, California. An avid reader, he maintains a widely followed public list of book recommendations covering history, technology, and economics.

Category:American technology entrepreneurs Category:American venture capitalists Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Category:1971 births Category:Living people