Marc Andreessen

Marc Andreessen
Born	Marc Lowell Andreessen 9 7, 1971
Birthplace	Cedar Falls, Iowa, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Venture capitalist, businessman, software engineer
Known for	Co-creator of Mosaic, co-founder of Netscape, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz
Education	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (BS)
Awards	Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering

Marc Lowell Andreessen (born July 9, 1971) is an American businessman, venture capitalist, and former software engineer who played a formative role in the development of the World Wide Web. As the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser capable of displaying inline images alongside text, Andreessen helped transform the internet from an academic tool into a mass medium. He subsequently co-founded Netscape Communications Corporation, whose Netscape Navigator browser became the dominant gateway to the web in the mid-1990s and whose initial public offering in August 1995 is often cited as the event that ignited the dot-com boom. Andreessen appeared on the cover of Time magazine in February 1996, symbolizing the ascent of a new generation of technology entrepreneurs.

After Netscape's acquisition by AOL, Andreessen co-founded several additional technology companies, including Loudcloud (later renamed Opsware), which was sold to Hewlett-Packard, and Ning, a platform for creating social networking websites. In 2009, he co-founded the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as "a16z") with longtime business partner Ben Horowitz. The firm grew into one of the most prominent investment vehicles in Silicon Valley, backing companies across software, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence. In 2011, Andreessen authored the influential essay "Why Software Is Eating the World," which argued that software companies were poised to disrupt and dominate large sectors of the economy.

Early Life

Marc Lowell Andreessen was born on July 9, 1971, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He grew up in the Midwestern United States. Details about his parents and family background remain limited in published sources, though his childhood in a small Iowa city has been noted by biographers as an unlikely origin point for someone who would become one of the central figures of the internet revolution.

Andreessen developed an early interest in computing and technology. He taught himself to program during his youth, a pursuit that would later prove foundational to his career in software development. His upbringing in the American Midwest, far from the technology corridors of California or the East Coast, gave little outward indication of the trajectory his career would take.

Education

Andreessen attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. While an undergraduate, he worked at the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), a federally funded research center that was at the forefront of high-performance computing and networking research.

It was at the NCSA that Andreessen, together with programmer Eric Bina, developed the Mosaic web browser. The project, begun in late 1992 and released in 1993, represented a significant advance in the usability of the World Wide Web by integrating images directly into the browsing experience, rather than requiring users to open them in separate windows. Mosaic's graphical interface made the web accessible to non-technical users for the first time and contributed substantially to the rapid growth of internet adoption in the early 1990s.

Career

Mosaic and the Birth of the Web Browser

Andreessen's work on the Mosaic web browser at the NCSA marked his first major contribution to the technology industry. Mosaic was not the first web browser—earlier browsers such as WorldWideWeb and Line Mode Browser had been created by Tim Berners-Lee and others at CERN—but it was the first to combine text and images on a single page in an intuitive graphical interface. Released in 1993 for Unix, Windows, and Macintosh platforms, Mosaic spread rapidly among academic and then general audiences.

The browser's popularity demonstrated the commercial potential of the World Wide Web and attracted the attention of Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics. Clark approached Andreessen in early 1994 with a proposal to start a new company that would build on the concepts pioneered in Mosaic.

Netscape Communications

In April 1994, Andreessen and Jim Clark co-founded Mosaic Communications Corporation, which was soon renamed Netscape Communications Corporation to avoid trademark disputes with the University of Illinois. The company developed Netscape Navigator, a commercial web browser that improved upon the Mosaic concept with greater speed, stability, and features. Navigator quickly captured a dominant share of the browser market, reportedly reaching over 80 percent usage at its peak.

Netscape's initial public offering on August 9, 1995, became one of the landmark events in technology business history. The stock, initially priced at $28 per share, soared to $75 on its first day of trading before closing at $58.25. The IPO valued the company at approximately $2.9 billion, a remarkable figure for a firm that had yet to turn a profit. The event is frequently cited as the catalyst for the broader dot-com bubble, drawing widespread public and investor attention to the commercial possibilities of the internet.

Andreessen, then 24 years old, became the public face of the internet boom. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine on February 19, 1996, barefoot and seated on a throne-like chair, an image that came to symbolize the brash confidence of the first generation of internet entrepreneurs.

Netscape subsequently engaged in the so-called browser wars with Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer browser was bundled with the Windows operating system beginning in 1995. Microsoft's aggressive distribution strategy eroded Netscape's market share over the following years. In 1998, Netscape released the source code of its browser under an open-source license, creating the Mozilla project. Later that year, AOL acquired Netscape for approximately $4.2 billion in stock.

Loudcloud and Opsware

After leaving Netscape, Andreessen co-founded Loudcloud in 1999 with Ben Horowitz, Tim Howes, and In Sik Rhee. Loudcloud was a cloud computing infrastructure company that provided managed hosting services, a concept that was ahead of its time but proved difficult to sustain through the dot-com crash of 2000–2001.

In 2002, the company sold its managed services business to Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and pivoted to enterprise software, renaming itself Opsware. The company developed software for automating data center operations. In 2007, Hewlett-Packard acquired Opsware for approximately $1.6 billion, providing a significant return for Andreessen and his co-founders and validating the enterprise software strategy they had adopted after the dot-com downturn.

Ning

Andreessen co-founded Ning in 2005, a platform that allowed users to create their own custom social networking websites. The company aimed to democratize social networking by enabling anyone to build a community-oriented site without programming knowledge. Ning attracted millions of users and hosted hundreds of thousands of social networks on its platform.

In 2011, Ning was merged with Glam Media, an online media company.

Andreessen Horowitz

In July 2009, Andreessen and Ben Horowitz co-founded Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm, often referred to by its abbreviation "a16z," launched with an initial fund of $300 million and a distinctive approach to venture capital that emphasized providing portfolio companies not only with funding but also with operational support, including assistance with recruiting, marketing, and business development.

Andreessen Horowitz made early or significant investments in a range of technology companies that became major enterprises, including Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, Airbnb, Lyft, Coinbase, and many others. The firm also invested in emerging areas such as cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. In 2012, the firm participated in a $11.2 million investment round in Meteor, a web development platform.

The firm also worked to standardize and simplify the legal processes involved in early-stage investing. In 2010, Andreessen Horowitz played a role in the development and launch of "Series Seed" documents, a set of simplified legal templates designed to reduce the cost and complexity of seed-stage financing for entrepreneurs.

Andreessen has served on the board of directors of several prominent technology companies. He joined the board of Facebook (now Meta Platforms) in 2008, bringing his experience as both an entrepreneur and investor to the social media company during a period of rapid growth.

"Why Software Is Eating the World"

On August 20, 2011, Andreessen published an essay in The Wall Street Journal titled "Why Software Is Eating the World." The piece argued that software companies were increasingly disrupting and displacing established industries across the economy, from retail and entertainment to healthcare and defense. The essay became one of the most widely cited pieces of technology commentary of the decade, and the phrase "software is eating the world" entered common usage in business and technology discourse.

As of 2026, the essay's thesis has continued to be debated and reinterpreted, particularly in the context of the rise of artificial intelligence. A 2026 analysis in Fortune noted that the essay's predictions were materializing in ways that were not fully anticipated at the time, with software increasingly automating functions that had previously required human labor, a trend accelerated by AI technologies.

Views on Cryptocurrency

Andreessen has been a vocal advocate for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a technology category. In early 2014, he articulated his case for Bitcoin's value and potential, arguing that the underlying technology could transform financial services and payments. Andreessen Horowitz has made substantial investments in cryptocurrency and blockchain-related companies, including the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which went public in 2021.

Views on Artificial Intelligence

In the mid-2020s, Andreessen became an outspoken commentator on the potential of artificial intelligence. In public statements reported in early 2026, he argued that AI was arriving at a critical moment to offset shrinking workforces and decades of weak productivity growth, contending that the primary concern should not be AI-driven job losses but rather what would have happened to the economy without AI.

Political Engagement

Andreessen supported candidates of the Democratic Party until 2016. In 2024, he became an advisor to Donald Trump, representing a notable shift in his political alignment. Reporting by ProPublica in November 2025 documented how the Trump administration's regulatory decisions, including the reduction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's oversight activities, had benefited venture capitalists including Andreessen.

Personal Life

Andreessen resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been described as an avid reader and consumer of information. A 2026 report in Fortune noted that he spends approximately three hours per day listening to podcasts and audiobooks, a habit he shares with other prominent business figures such as Bill Gates and Mark Cuban.

Andreessen has engaged in philanthropic activities. In 2007, he and his wife made a pledge to Stanford Hospital in support of emergency care services.

Recognition

Andreessen has received numerous awards and honors over the course of his career. In 2012, Time magazine named him to its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, recognizing his impact as both a technology pioneer and an investor shaping the next generation of technology companies.

He was recognized by the MIT Technology Review as one of the top innovators under 35 (TR35), an honor that acknowledged his early contributions to internet technology.

Andreessen is also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, a global prize that recognizes engineers responsible for groundbreaking innovations that have benefited humanity. The prize committee recognized his contributions to the development of the web browser and, by extension, the broader internet ecosystem.

Legacy

Andreessen's career spans multiple eras of the technology industry, from the emergence of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s through the rise of social media, cloud computing, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence. His development of the Mosaic web browser is recognized by technology historians as a pivotal moment in making the internet accessible to a global audience. The subsequent creation and IPO of Netscape helped establish the commercial internet as an industry and inspired a generation of technology entrepreneurs and investors.

As a venture capitalist, Andreessen's influence has extended beyond individual investments to shape broader industry thinking about the role of software and technology in economic transformation. His 2011 essay "Why Software Is Eating the World" provided a conceptual framework that has been widely adopted in business strategy and technology investment. The essay's thesis continues to be referenced and debated, particularly as artificial intelligence introduces new dimensions to the relationship between software and economic activity.

Andreessen Horowitz, the firm he co-founded with Ben Horowitz, has grown from a single fund into a multi-billion-dollar investment platform with interests spanning enterprise software, consumer technology, fintech, cryptocurrency, biology, and artificial intelligence. The firm's model of providing operational support alongside capital has influenced the practices of other venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Andreessen's political trajectory—from supporting Democratic candidates to advising the Trump administration in 2024—has also attracted attention as emblematic of broader shifts in the political leanings of parts of the technology industry.

References

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