palo alto -- In Silicon Valley, where youth is revered and twentysomethings are handed millions of dollars to start companies, 36-year-old Marc Andreessen has become an elder statesman.
His image evokes a simpler time, when the Internet seemed cute and harmless, before the bust and before the rise of Google Inc. The man who helped develop the first commercial Web browser is still referred to in some circles as the poster boy of the Internet age. They remember him as the smiling, baby-faced kid from Wisconsin who appeared on a 1996 cover of Time magazine barefoot, sitting on a throne.
But Andreessen hasn't allowed himself to be frozen in time or relegated to has-been status. He's still moving and shaking, and reaping the financial rewards.
Last month, Hewlett-Packard Co. shelled out $1.6 billion for the company he co-founded as a follow-up to Netscape Communications Corp. Also in July, his third, Ning Inc., a Web software operation that business partner Gina Bianchini runs, landed $44 million in its first round of venture funding.
He has also become an author. Though he was late to the blogging party, the online diary he launched in June has quickly built a readership among entrepreneurs and financiers interested in the inner workings of Silicon Valley.
He weighs in with mentor-like postings such as "When VCs say no," "Bubbles on the brain" and "Why NOT to do a start-up."
Silicon Valley is the land of the serial entrepreneur. But Andreessen is a breed unto himself, the rare person who keeps coming up with ideas and sticks around until the concept works, said Mark Kvamme, a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital.
"Marc has an amazing fortitude to follow through with what he believes in," Kvamme said. "I think he has a couple of more companies in him."
As Friendster, MySpace and other social-networking websites tussled for consumers' affections, Andreessen and Bianchini decided to make software tools that let people create their own social networks and other Web applications. A social network, which can be public or private, is a place online where people meet around a topic or interest and make comments, share photos and post videos.
Ning was born, with financial backing from Andreessen and some friends. Its offices are across the street in Palo Alto from today's hot social networking company, Facebook.
