Blogger of the Year

 

It seems a sure bet that history will not remember Marc Andreessen for his writing. That's a shame. The engineer-savant who co-founded Netscape and who sold his second company, Opsware, earlier this year for $1.6 billion is the curator of the best entrepreneur's blog we've seen. Part personal service, part financial advice, and part entrepreneurial philosophy, Blog.Pmarca.com is a refreshing break from a universe of online journals written by self-satisfied venture capitalists, self-promoting marketers, and blowhards of all stripes. Pmarca is all the more interesting because Andreessen writes from deep in the weeds of his latest effort--a social networking start-up called Ning, which raised $44 million from venture capitalists several months ago. For entrepreneurs who haven't been as lucky with investors, Andreessen's advice is characteristically encouraging, insightful, and funny. "One 'no' doesn't mean anything--the VC could just be having a bad day," he writes. "Or she had a bad experience with another company in your category, or she had a bad experience with another company with a similar name, or she had a bad experience with another founder who kind of looks like you, or her Mercedes SLR McLaren's engine could have blown up on the freeway that morning--it could be anything. Go meet with more VCs."

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    • Max Chafkin

    Senior writer Max Chafkin has profiled companies such as Yelp, Zappos, Twitter, Threadless, and Tesla for the magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.


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