A Look Inside the Insanely Successful Life of Silicon Valley Investor Marc Andreessen
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12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider A look inside the insanely successful life of Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen MAYA KOSOFF 1H Marc Andreessen is best known for cofounding the internet browser Netscape and launching Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's most famous REUTERS/Mike Segar venture capital firms. Today, a16z has $4.2 billion under management. Andreessen was an early investor in tech companies like Facebook and Twitter and has overseen its investments in hot billiondollar startups like Airbnb. Andreessen's net worth was an estimated $600 million in 2012 and has likely increased since — not bad for someone who grew up in a sleepy "nostoplight town" in rural Wisconsin. http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 1/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider View As: One Page Slides Marc Andreessen grew up in the rural town of New Lisbon, Wisconsin. His dad, Lowell, worked for a seed company. His mom, Pat, worked for retailer Lands' End in customer service. AP Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 2/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider Andreessen doesn't like to talk about family: “We’ve never had a conversation about his parents or his brother — all he said was, ‘They didn’t like me, and I didn’t like them all that much, either,'" a friend of Andreessen told The New Yorker's Tad Friend. REUTERS/Fred Prouser Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 3/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider When he was 9 years old, Andreessen taught himself BASIC programming from a library book. Once he hit high school, he'd already grown bored of his TRS80, an early personal computer. Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 4/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider Andreessen went to the University of Illinois at Champaign, where he studied computer science when he wasn't falling asleep in lecture or skipping class. Flickr/VSmithUK Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 5/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider In college, Andreessen spent two months working 80 hour weeks in a computer lab, building a web browser he called Mosaic. He and his team gave away Mosaic to 2 million users for free. Time Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 6/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider This caught the attention of James Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics. He and Andreessen cofounded Netscape in 1994. AP Images Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 7/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider In August 1995, Netscape went public, and, at 24, Andreessen was suddenly worth $56 million. Four years later, AOL bought Netscape, and Andreessen briefly took a job as CTO, moving to a 7,000squarefoot home in Washington, DC. Kevin Maloney / Fortune Brainstorm Tech via Flickr Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 8/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider When he left AOL, Andreessen formed a webhosting company called Loudcloud with Ben Horowitz and others. The company changed its name to Opsware and sold to HP in 2007 for $1.6 billion. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechSe… 9/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider Andreessen and Ben Horowitz formed their Silicon Valley venturecapital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, in 2009. They started with $300 million, and in three years the firm grew to have $2.7 billion under management. The firm has made investments that have paid off, in companies like Facebook, Airbnb, GitHub, and Twitter. AP Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechS… 10/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider In 2006, Andreessen married Laura Arrillaga, the daughter of Silicon Valley realestate tycoon John Arrillaga and the founder of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund. Paul Sakuma / AP Images Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechS… 11/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider He and Arrillaga live in a 9,000squarefoot home filled with modern art in Atherton, just five minutes from Andreessen Horowitz's offices. Paul Sakuma / AP Images Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechS… 12/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider Andreessen has been named to Vanity Fair's 2011 New Establishment List, Forbes' Midas List of tech's top investors, and the Time 100. Flickr/Joi Ito Sources: Time, Vanity Fair, Forbes http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechS… 13/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider In 2012, Andreessen Horowitz's general partners, including Marc Andreessen, pledged to donate half of their lifetime income from venturecapital activities to charity. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Source http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechS… 14/15 12/13/2015 A look inside the insanely successful life of investor Marc Andreessen Business Insider Today, Andreessen Horowitz has $4.2 billion under management. The firm invests in hot startups like Slack, Lyft, Airbnb, and Pinterest. AP Images Source More: Marc Andreessen Andreessen Horowitz Netscape Features http://www.businessinsider.com/alookinsidetheinsanelysuccessfullifeofinvestormarcandreessen201512?nr_email_referer=1&utm_content=TechS… 15/15.