Ning Receives $44MM; Andreesen Blogs

21 months ago, my daughter Athena von Oech went to work as one of the very early employees at Ning, a full-suite social networking company based in Palo Alto. Athena is currently a Sr. Product Manager. Ning was founded by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreesen and Gina Bianchini. Ning is doing well (go to their site and check them out): they currently have 75,000 networks using their platform.

Last week was a good one for Ning: they received $44 million from Legg Mason (and others) and orchestrated by Allen & Company. That puts a value of nearly $250 million on the company. Shades of 1999 or proof positive that the investment community thinks social networking is here to stay? Time will tell. The folks over at TechCrunch certainly have their opinions (see here).

What do you think? Social networking: 1999-redux or a sound business investment, or depends on the company?

Which brings me to Marc Andreesen. Five weeks ago, he started blogging at the site http://blog.pmarca.com/. And he's thrilled about it! Check him out. He writes well-thought-out posts on a variety of subjects, but especially dealing with the business of startups and their financing. In that short period, his Technorati Authority rating has soared to 1,780. Not bad for a newbie.

Marc has a recent post called  "Eleven Lessons Learned About Blogging, So Far." It's well worth reading. I only wish that Marc still allowed comments; his early posts did and it was fun seeing what his readers thought of his "takes." (Also, check out his top posts.) Interesting insights, wouldn't you agree?

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

Roger:

I had seen Andreesen's post. He's a newbie only in relative terms. He's a well-known personality. Before he turned off his comments I got a look at the wildest variety I had seen to date there.

The big news here is your daughter's beautiful smile (I can see the resemblance) and her being inside a company on the ground floor. Crossing fingers that it all goes well -- my one tech start up experience was short lived -- she already has amazing experience in a nascent field and job of the future.

[George Willett]

Roger, I have to chime-in on this one. We are seeing the emergence of 21st century applications in social networking in the same way that PSF from Software Publishing Corporation and Dan Fylstra with Visicalc helped generate a consumer software industry. Companies like NING are restructuring what personal communication in the broadest sense, will be like in the 21st century. From telegraph to telephone to video to social networking and beyond. The search for “killer applications” of 20th century has been by-passed by the drive for individual expression and personal connectivity. Who would have thought of that?

Your daughter also happens to be my God Daughter, so I will admit to the bias, but I know she will enjoy the ride. Having had my own ride on those old 20th century horses, Athena’s vision of the world offers exciting possibilities to explore.

[David Armano]

Roger,

Congrats on Athena's news. That's wonderful. I actually had an opportunity to start playing around with Ning last week and I think it's a pretty solid idea. I need to come back to it as I haven't had the time to create a page that I feel good enough to invite others to yet.

But it's great to know that Athena joined a place that is getting investments. I wish her the best of luck and I'm sure you are very proud.

[Roger von Oech]

Valeria: Yes, this is an interesting time to be working at an accessible-technology company. She's having fun and getting to work 60-70 hours a week.

George: Good to hear from you. Yes, you have ridden a few of the "20th century technology horses." ; -)

You say: "The search for “killer applications” of 20th century has been by-passed by the drive for individual expression and personal connectivity." That's true, but I also think the following is true:

The killer application has turned out to be one that Joseph Pulitzer put together in the 19th century: high-speed newspaper presses and mass circulation advertising. Everyone is a publisher these days and Google is the advertiser (both sides) and raking in the dough.

David: "Athena joined a place that is getting investments." Yes, they're happy to have the money. Few things in business are worse than the flip side: burning through cash and having no money coming in.

[Lewis Green]

The best thing Marc Andreesen has done so far might be that unlike Netscape, he isn't first to market and social media has had a chance to mature. By the way, your daughter is beautful and I imagine very intelligent.