Marc Andreessen

Marc Andreessen (born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is best known as the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser, and as the co-founder of Netscape.

Early life and education

Andreessen was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and raised in New Lisbon, Wisconsin. He received his Bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Career

Mosaic

In 1993, while at the University of Illinois, Andreessen and a team of students and staff released the Mosaic web browser, which played a significant role in popularizing the World Wide Web.

Netscape

After graduating, Andreessen moved to California to work at Enterprise Integration Technologies. In 1994, he co-founded Netscape Communications Corporation, where he served as chief technology officer. Netscape's web browser, Netscape Navigator, was a market leader until it was overtaken by Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the so-called "browser wars".

Post-Netscape Career

After leaving Netscape, Andreessen co-founded Loudcloud, a web hosting and services company, which was later renamed Opsware and sold to Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in 2007.

In 2009, Andreessen and Ben Horowitz founded the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, and Lyft.

Personal life

Andreessen is married to Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, a philanthropist and author. They reside in Palo Alto, California.

Recognition

Andreessen was included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2014. He was also inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012.

See also

• Silicon Valley
• Dot-com bubble
• Web browser