Getting Started by Kris Olson

Marc Andreessen Joins Facebook Board

The news today was Marc Andreessen's joining the board of Facebook. From Netscape to Facebook, some interesting ironies along the way. Marc is also a founder of Ning, a social networking application. So why is this important to startups? It's because Marc will be a terrific mentor to Mark Zuckerberg. Having the right board members is so important to your startup's success. This is Mark's quote"

 "I know Marc will be a great mentor to me and our leadership team. He has experience that is relevant to Facebook in so many ways: scaling companies that are experiencing extraordinary growth, creating successful technology platforms, and building strong engineering organizations."

Marc (the "c" Andreessen variety) writes a wonderful blog for startups with great thoughtfulness on what it takes to build a company. While I don't know Marc personally, I have been impressed by his writing and speaking.  Having someone of his caliber and experience on your board is a great coup.  He may not be the board member for a Fortune 500 company, I don't know, but he will be perfect for today, and probably have a blast while he is at it.

The Microsoft Emerging Business Team is apparently fond of Marc Andreessen, having written 5 or 6 blog posts on him before.

Congrats to Mark and Marc.

Filed under: Entrepreneurs, Startup, Tips for Startups

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Published Tuesday, July 01, 2008 10:00 PM by Kris Olson

About Kris Olson

At Microsoft, I focus on innovative startups on the Microsoft platform as well as the investors who back them. This year I am officially editor in chief of The Microsoft Startup Zone. Our goal is to convey the story of the business value of our platform and programs to future and current entrepreneurs in venture-backed (or similarly scaled) companies.

I was born and reared in Berkeley, California. I majored in English at Stanford and later got my MBA there. I have worked in marketing, primarily with startups – helping pitch to investors, define their products, build positioning and messaging for press/analysts/customers, making sure that every touch point reflected their brand – the experience we wanted customers and partners to have with the company.

In mid-2004, I joined Microsoft – wanting to see what it takes to build a large company for the long run. Most recently I had been co-founder and vice president of marketing for UpShot, an online CRM company bought by Siebel (now Oracle) in November 2003. Earlier I was vice president of marketing for McAfee Associates shortly after it went public, then Rocket Science Games and earlier, head of marketing for Ansa Software, makers of Paradox (relational database), which was sold to Borland – and my first venture into startups. I started my high tech career at Apple Computer where I was initially a product manager, then worked on the Apple IIc launch and headed developer marketing for the Apple II group.

I equate working in a startup to walking on a tightrope: you can’t look down and must always believe. It takes tremendous focus and determination – as well as innovative and scrappy problem solving! I love it.

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