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zdnet.com
Can Marc Andreessen do it again?
EXCLUSIVE: Netscape co-founder launches his second Net startup.
By Ben Elgin & Mary Jo Foley, Sm@rt Reseller
October 22, 1999 2:41 PM ET
Less than two months after unceremoniously departing his America Online Inc. post, Web pioneer Marc Andreessen is preparing to launch his second Internet startup, Sm@rt Reseller has learned. And he's assembled a killer management team, chock-full of former Netscape Communications Corp. gurus and other Internet veterans, to catapult the company to success.
According to sources familiar with the new company's plans, Andreessen and his pals are charging full bore into the hosted application space, building a complete platform that will comprise a database, application server, directory server and other critical elements. Essentially, the new company -- code-named VCellar -- will target Internet hosts and data-center providers, which would offer this back-end platform to dot-com startups.
While Andreessen and his colleagues are developing some pieces of the puzzle internally, other elements may be added through acquisition.
Plenty of rivals
Andreessen & Co. aren't alone in targeting back-end infrastructure for hosted software. Microsoft Corp., IBM, Oracle Corp. and other top software vendors have been pitching their back-end platforms to ASPs (application service providers) and data-center vendors for several months. Those software giants also have been testing the software-rental waters by partnering with ASPs to offer elements of their respective back-end platforms on a rental basis.
Andreessen's hush-hush startup currently is operating out of shared workspace in Menlo Park, Calif., according to one source. It is not known if VCellar will remain the company's name, but a member of the executive team has secured the Web address, www.vcellar.com, according to Internic records.
In a recent conversation with Sm@rt Reseller, Andreessen declined to comment on any unannounced projects or investments.
Regardless, answers should come soon, as the company's publicity launch is slated for the next week or two, according to multiple sources. After that, the startup is expected to seek venture funding, with former Netscape boss Jim Barksdale's investment group likely chipping in some dough.
"Every VC wants a piece of this thing," said a source familiar with the company's plans.
Star-studded cast
A successful, high-profile launch could reestablish Andreessen's status as one of the Internet's top visionaries.
After co-founding Netscape in 1994 with Jim Clark and taking the company public in 1995, Andreessen came under heavy fire from Microsoft and sold his Internet powerhouse to AOL in late 1998. Andreessen surprised many observers by taking a role as chief technology officer at AOL -- a company he seemed ill-fitted to serve because of corporate-culture differences.
But after less than six months in AOL's CTO role and another six-plus weeks off the public's radar screen, Andreessen is set to emerge as chairman of his new startup. Meanwhile, longtime Netscape colleague Ben Horowitz will serve as CEO.
No one should be shocked by Horowitz's CEO title. Fiercely loyal to Andreessen, Horowitz told Sm@rt Reseller in February that Andreessen's decision to stay at AOL beyond the merger compelled Horowitz to stay.
"If Marc didn't stay, I'd probably leave and join the new company that Marc would inevitably start," Horowitz uncannily said at the time.
The new company also has snared former Netscape and AOL exec Timothy Howes, widely credited for authoring LDAP (the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), and In Sik Rhee, a seasoned veteran from Netscape's Kiva application-server division.
In addition, the startup has lured Jonathan Heiliger, a 23-year-old Internet phenomenon from Frontier Ventures, the VC arm of Frontier Communications. Prior to his VC work, Heiliger served as CTO of Frontier GlobalCenter, developing the Web-hosting architecture used by clients like Yahoo.
When contacted by Sm@rt Reseller, Heiliger would not comment on the new venture, saying only that it was "an opportunity I could not pass up."
With the core staff seemingly in place, the company seems to be well-positioned to pounce on the outsourced, back-end infrastructure market.
But VCellar will have its share of competitors. And one of them, at least peripherally, is Microsoft. Moreover, a handful of back-end infrastructure providers -- such as USWeb/CKS -- are targeting ASP outsourcing, too.
Competitors or not, Andreessen is about to get one more chance to knock that Redmond monkey off his back. |
