Gawker
-
facebook
Resign, Mark Zuckerberg, Resign
It's time for Facebook to unfriend its 24-year-old college dropout CEO. Mark Zuckerberg had a decent run. But he's the wrong person at the wrong time to lead his social network through its growing pains. More »
22,846
81
By Owen ThomasComment by bmoreDLJ: I feel like he was smart enough to write the code for the Facebook matrix, but makes him a businessman,... 8 Responses | Other threads
-
hires
Marc Andreessen joins eBay's board, will crush you
Marc Andreessen has been invited to join the board at eBay. The online auction company has been struggling of late, never mind CEO John Donahoe's assertion that what's bad for the American economy is good for eBay. Andreessen, probably smelling the stink blowing in from the rising tide, stockpiled enough venture capital to last Ning through a "nuclear winter." Proving his acumen at swindling investors if nothing else — and he does know how to keep employees overworked between stints at eager, young startups like Netscape and Ning and layoff-happy AOL. [San Jose Mercury News]
655
By Jackson WestComment by ResearchZilla: dude, it just hit me: marc is the chubby and nerdy twin of corgan (smashing pumpkins) but in his zwan... more » | Other threads
-
quotable
Ning employees not normal, says CEO
"My engineers say, 'We're normal people too.' And then I have to have a conversation with them about why they're not." — Ning CEO Gina Bianchini, speaking at MIT's EmTech conference about her workers' lack of a feel for what interests the social-network tool's users.
907
By Owen ThomasComment by michaellamb: it has nothing to do with her sex except that she's got a vag and marc dipped it (if it... 1 Responses | Other threads
-
valleyspeak
Gina Bianchini lurks outside the walled garden
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — "That is not my presentation, although it would be very sexy if it were," said Ning CEO Gina Bianchini, as she took the stage at MIT's EmTech conference here, with someone else's Windows desktop blown up on a screen behind her. Alas, her presentation, a canned version of Ning's stump speech, was not sexy. Bianchini routinely talks up Ning, a set of tools for developing customized social networks, as if it were a platform, and takes audiences through a tiresome parade of the free websites created by her customers. MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are "walled gardens," she says — techspeak for an online service whose contents are tightly controlled by its owner. But listening to Bianchini, I couldn't help thinking that "walled garden" is code for "an idea I wished I'd come up with."
1,052
By Owen ThomasComment by WilliamMarkFelt: She's pretty hot for an SV girl. 2 Responses | Other threads
-
Low Comedy
Former Ning employee fantasizes about kidnapping Marc Andreessen
Comedian Hasan Minhaj recently left his old job at social networking startup Ning to persue a career in standup comedy and writing. Pointing out to the crowd at the Punchline last night where he was hosting, Minhaj explained that his old boss, Ning founder Marc Andreessen, was worth $5.6 billion. So why work startup hours for a few thousand a month when you could kidnap the guy for ransom? Because, as he lamented, his coworkers "put the soft in software." However, "I put the hard in hardware," Minhaj boasted. "Milpitas 'til I die!" It was all posturing in good fun, and the bit got a hearty laugh. I, for one, see the inevitable buddy picture road movie, with a disgruntled employee kidnapping a wealthy technology CEO and making a run for the border as hijinx ensue. Minhaj is performing tonight at the space180 gallery in the Mission tonight and at the Makeout Room tomorrow.
606
By Jackson WestComment by WilliamMarkFelt: @ciscokidinsf - Communist government? You mean fascist regime don't you? 1 Responses | Other threads
-
quotable
Valleywag mangles Marc Andreessen, and we think he likes it
PALO ALTO — Thursday night in a Crowne Plaza hotel, with an Elks Club banquet roaring next door, Netscape cofounder, Ning king, and Facebook board member Marc Andreessen sat down with Portfolio writer Kevin Maney for a Churchill Club interview. This wasn't exactly what Andreessen had planned. Back in May, he wrote on his blog that he planned to stop speaking in public: "Used to be, if you wanted to get a message out into the market, you would give a talk at a conference, a reporter would write down some of what you said and mangle the rest, and you'd call it a day.... Mid-year resolution #1: No more public speaking. Mid-year resolution #2: More blogging." Two weeks later, he stopped blogging. Here follows a thoroughly mangled version of his comments. Marc, you have no one to blame but yourself. More »
1,811
By Owen ThomasComment by Shadowlayer: Marc must believe that someone else will pay the big wages of NYT's journalists, just like someone else is paying... more » | Other threads
-
commenter of the day
elvenjewel
Our summary of social-network operator Ning's tiff with a widgetmaker sparked a vicious name-calling riot in the comments. Elvenjewel became today's featured commenter by providing a helpful summary of the fracas, which proved more interesting than the Ning dispute: More » -
nerdfight
Why Ning axed a widgetmaker
Marc Andreessen's Ning is a platform for thousands of social networks. Mick Balaban and Spencer Forman's WidgetLaboratory builds and sells add-ons for operators of those social sites. Or did, until August 22. That's when Ning general counsel Robert Ghoorah wrote Forman to say that WidgetLaboratory would be booted from the site for breaking its rules. The charge: something about how their widgets "unduly degraded" the rest of Ning. Now, Forman's made that email — as well as 14 others between Forman, Ghoorah, and Ning CEO Gina Bianchini — available online. Trust us, you don't want to read them all. Here's the soap opera minus the froth: More »
3,003
Comment by emnem: Newsflash to Kimjo: My "cock" had better be "small" - I am a woman, after all. What would you like... 1 Responses | Other threads
-
-
social networks
Advertisers fighting with your friends and neighbors' sex lives for attention on Facebook
It's not Ning's porn-sharing communities, Facebook's co-ed antics, and MySpace's ninja sex angel users that prevent these social networking sites from making as much money off ads as hoped. It's the issue of getting quality attention with each insertion, writes Bryant Urstadt for the MIT Technology Review. He doesn't blame the "rude content" (you know, what the users do) or the advertisers getting skittish about running a banner adjacent to the list of people you've slept with. It's not users being naughty that's the problem — it's that no one knows how to sell against "bad behavior" yet. More »
958
Comment by G2GdoB2B: The problem with online advertisement is trying to integrate all the information the users are giving away and creating an... more » | Other threads
-
venture capital
VC Dennis Miller doesn't envy Ning and Brightcove's investors
NEW YORK — VCs continue to invest irrationally, Spark Capital partner Dennis Miller said at EconAds yesterday. He said too many VCs invest in "rock star" founders as though they are "a call option on a bright future." Others too quickly buy the hype from hard-selling founders. Too many company's are getting too high valuations, he added. More »
1,335
Comment by Shadowlayer: @Shadowlayer: I meant "sometimes even unrealistic" more » | Other threads
-
social networks
Google's Friend Connect bad news for Marc Andreessen
By offering a suite of tools for websites to add a social network layer, Google isn't challenging established players like Facebook and MySpace, but instead sites offering customizable, turnkey social networks. In other words, look out, Marc Andreessen: Larry and Sergey just declared themselves the Microsoft to Ning's Netscape. [News.com]
1,017
By Jackson WestComment by BobDope: Andreesen's aerodynamic head is still a sight to behold. more » | Other threads
-
once you're lucky, twice you're good
B is for Botha, who sold YouTube big
Few people outside Silicon Valley have heard of Roelof Botha. But the former CFO of PayPal is famous here. His two claims to fame: negotiating that company's $1.5 billion sale to eBay, and later, as a partner at Sequoia Capital, investing in YouTube and quickly flipping the startup to Google for $1.65 billion. Is it a coincidence that that figure is 10 percent higher than his PayPal score? Few insiders think so. Botha gets four pages in Sarah Lacy's Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good — more than Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Other figures who appear on the second page of her Web 2.0 book's index: John Battelle, Ning CEO Gina Bianchini, Facebook board member Jim Breyer, blog blowhard Jason Calacanis, and YouTube cofounder Steve Chen, whom Botha made quite wealthy. More »
1,655
By Owen ThomasComment by weezle3: "California Pubic Retirement System"? That better not be in the final edition, or the whole source of funds for the... more » | Other threads
-
once you're lucky, twice you're good
A is for Adelson, who cofounded Digg
Digg cofounder Jay Adelson is now asked by the likes of Kara Swisher how he'd fix big media companies, as in this clip. But there was a time when he barely knew what to do with his own Internet startup, Equinix. That tale and more covers 54 out of 294 pages in Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, Sarah Lacy's soon-to-be-released book about Web 2.0. The first page of the book's index, one of many to come: More »
1,869
By Owen ThomasComment by Matt Schlicht: Uh huh... uh huh...uh huh...uh huh. more » | Other threads
-
hires
Andreessen to stack Facebook board further in Zuckerberg's favor
Netscape cofounder and propagator of porn social networks Marc Andreessen will join Facebook's board of directors, Kara Swisher reports. Andreessen will join current board members Accel Partners Jim Breyer, Clarium Capital's Peter Thiel, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Andreessen is the chairman of Ning, a company which sells tools for rolling your own social network. If your mom has an excellent visual memory, she will probably remembers him for appearing on the cover of Time magazine without shoes on. You can tell her that he dresses better now, but only slightly. Why Andreessen, and not a proxy for new investors Microsoft or Li Ka-Shing? More »
1,104
Comment by dingdongditch: is it me or is it a picture of a Klingon that had a haircutting accident? more » | Other threads
-
deals
Marc Andreessen's hidden hostility to takeovers
Ning founder Marc Andreessen is already on the record about Microsoft's proposed takeover of Yahoo: He thinks it will likely go through, and turn out to be a good deal. It's a remarkably sanguine take for someone who saw Netscape bought and destroyed by AOL. In a thorough analysis for which he dragooned two corporate lawyers, Andreessen elaborates: Yahoo has few defenses, aside from a poison pill, and Microsoft will likely succeed. For all its thoroughness, the analysis is less interesting for what it says about Microsoft-Yahoo than for what it says about Andreessen. More »
1,039
By Owen ThomasComment by BobDope: He shoulda been a swimmer, son gotta have no drag w/ that head. more » | Other threads
-
marc andreessen
Why Marc Andreessen should stick to his keyboard
Every time Marc Andreessen steps away from his desk, disaster abounds. For the father of the Netscape browser, the creator of the Web as we know it, the legendary barefoot geek from the magazine covers, expectations are way too high. And so the disappointments pile up. The Andreessen of today is not the Marc we remember. His pate has gone from mophead to Klingon; his wardrobe, inevitably a tracksuit with leather shoes, is an utter disaster. And when he speaks, he says absolutely nothing. John Battelle, the slickster salesman-interviewer of bubbles past and present, tried to get some fighting words out of Andreessen on stage at Web 2.0 Expo. He failed, utterly, epicly. Andreessen praised Bill Gates, said competing with Microsoft was interesting, described Microsoft-Yahoo as "a good deal." More » -
breakdowns
Ning fires VP of operations two days before major outage
Here's how things usually work: Have a major outage, then fire your operations guy. At Marc Andreessen's Ning, the social-network Web host best known for its porn sites, things run a bit differently. On Monday, CEO Gina Bianchini fired VP of operations Alexei Rodriguez. On Wednesday, the company saw all of Ning's networks go offline. We hear Rodriguez failed to deliver a promised upgrade to Ning's systems that would have avoided the problem; the outage was coincidental but almost inevitable, given Rodriguez's omission. The larger problem for Ning: No one seems to care that it was down. When you offer porn and still no one complains that they can't get to it, you have a problem which goes much deeper than database configurations.
2,305
By Owen ThomasComment by Rockwell: Ning's social networks are primarily useful for creating viral expansion loops in my pants. more » | Other threads
-
jackpot
Ning raises $60 million for "nuclear winter"
A Fast Company cover story isn't the only inexplicable gift social-network startup Ning has received. After raising $44 million last July, Ning has raised another $60 million, cofounder Marc Andreessen reluctantly announced. (A regulatory filing uncovered by VentureBeat forced the news out of him.) Why the eight-figure round for a startup whose annual revenues are likely in the low seven figures? Andreessen says he wanted to "make sure we have plenty of firepower to survive the oncoming nuclear winter."
3,570
By Owen ThomasComment by masterofmonkeys: Behold! Those millions will give Andreesen the muscle to rule the post-Apocalyptic Valley as Ning the Merciless, alongside his CEO... more » | Other threads
-
journalist math
Marc Andreessen's egg-shaped head, CEO's rack distract Fast Company writer from Ning's vanishingly small business
Here's what you really need to know about Ning, according to Fast Company writer Adam Penenberg. Its chairman, Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, has an egg-shaped head. Its CEO, Gina Bianchini, who posed for Fast Company's cover in a tank top, is a "hottie." And Ning, a provider of websites for niche social networks, is poised to hit "critical mass" and "no one can stop it." Two out of those three statements were factchecked. More »
8,964
By Owen ThomasComment by ImAManImForty: @babygotback: Of course. not. A little makeup, some proper lighting, and a couple shots of Patron and she is model-hot. Black and... more » | Other threads
-
acquisitions
Marc Andreessen: Plenty of buyers for startups — especially his
Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, who now runs social networks for porn sites, doesn't think that the Microsoft-Yahoo deal bodes ill for startups. True, there will be one less buyer out there if the deal goes through — but, he argues, neither Microsoft nor Yahoo has been a particularly active acquirer of small startups. He provides a long list of companies, from Akamai to WPP, which have bought startups. If anything, facing Google and a beefed-up Microsoft will prompt media companies to go on a spending spree. More » -
social networks
Is Marc Andreessen running a porn ring?
Ning, the social-network software maker cofounded by Marc Andreessen, appears to get substantial traffic from adult-oriented websites it hosts. CPM Advisors notes that some of Ning's top networks include names like girlongirl.ning.com, whiteholes4blackpoles.ning.com, and ladyboyworld.ning.com. From Quantcast's and Alexa's numbers, these creatively named sites account for a double-digit percentage of Ning's traffic. Ning's terms of service do not forbid pornographic content, so no rules are being broken here, it seems. Still, one wonders if this is really what Andreessen, who previously cofounded Netscape and Opsware, had in mind for his third entrepreneurial act.
6,183
By Owen ThomasComment by Dashiell Bennett: What was that I was saying about what happens when porn competes on a level playing field? [valleywag.com] Now what is this... more » | Other threads
-
charity
Marc Andreessen gives away more money than your startup has raised
Netscape, Opsware and Ning cofounder Marc Andreessen and his wife, Stanford grad-school professor Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, have donated $27.5 million dollars to Stanford Hospital to update its emergency room. According to the report, the pair have been planning a major charitable donation "since the day they got engaged in 2006." Billionaire romance is different from the regular sort, isn't it?
1,381
Comment by uninsured: Does this mean that the people who have health insurance, and who can afford Stanford Hospitals astronomic fees will get... more » | Other threads
-
leaks
What OpenSocial will look like on Ning
A tipster has leaked us these screen shots of how Marc Andreessen and company plan to integrate Google's OpenSocial platform into Ning. Make sure you're sitting down. We've got a ninja. More »
1,663
Comment by Owen Thomas: @nealsid: Marc Andreessen only took a decade to discover blogging. I figure we're entitled to ignore his blog for at... more » | Other threads
-
opensocial
Another minute, another Google Gang member
According to a source, blog-software company Six Apart has joined as another partner for Google's OpenSocial platform. For those of you keeping count at home, don't bother. The list is surely to grow as word gets out. Social network Friendster, for example, wasn't asked to join the Google Gang. The pioneering social network begged to be included after a story leaked on TechCrunch. Google's secrecy is making the whole "open" affair less than transparent, as different names leak to different reporters. Here's a list of media outlets and the OpenSocial partners they list. More »
684
Comment by timlonghurst: I've created the closest to a complete list of OpenSocial launch partners that I have seen anywhere. The... more » | Other threads
-
the chart
Bunch of losers and Google gang up on Facebook
Google couldn't get a piece of Facebook or its hot apps platform, so now it's building its own. Not that it would like people to call it Google's platform; it's trying to persuade people that this is an open platform. It's called OpenSocial, and it's supposed to force developers to reconsider writing apps solely in FBML, the Facebook platform's proprietary language. The idea is that Google will gather a gang of websites whose users combined, will offer an audience as large as Facebook's. It's a fine theory, but let's see the real numbers behind the Google Gang. More »
4,255
Comment by Figaro: Now that Myspace is in, even the idiotic fanboys like 500 guy have to admit that FB is in trouble. more » | Other threads
-
superficial
Michael Moritz, what are you doing with your shoes?
Pictured this morning on the TechCrunch40 stage, four men worth a total of a kajillion dollars or something along those lines. From left, Yahoo founder David Filo, wearing the safe and unimaginative Silicon Valley uniform, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley in his jeans-and-jacket casual yuppie attire, Ning and Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, who goes for the novel tracksuit and khakis combo, and Sequoia Capital uber-investor Michael Moritz. Oh, Michael. He's Welsh, so he's always dressed a bit more snappily than the normal tech layperson, which is a good thing. But what on earth is he doing with his shoes? Hoping to change into slippers and a cardigan like a powerful Mr. Rogers? Or just nervously squirming in his chair before the crowd? VCs already have a reputation as ADD-addled fidgeters, this isn't going to help. (Photo by jspepper) -
geek love
For founders, Ning proves to be a very social network indeed
In yesterday's LA Times profile of Marc Andreessen, the mid-1990s wunderkind Netscape founder, there's one small detail about Andreessen and Gina Bianchini, his current business partner in social network Ning, that not everyone in the Valley may know:[Andreessen] also joined the board of Harmonic Communications, a software company that tracked and measured advertising. [Sequoia Capital VC Mark] Kvamme introduced him to Bianchini, a former Goldman Sachs analyst who had co-founded Harmonic. She and Andreessen dated briefly, then became good friends.
Andreessen is now CTO at Ning, where Bianchini is CEO. What's that old saying?
2,076
Comment by OmarMojojojo: Yes she's hot! I think she has a thing for money, though. more » | Other threads
-
4,403
Comment by DaveMcClure500Hats: @david quiec / jdhouse4: wait a sec... i thought schmoozing *was* working?!? more » | Other threads
-
acquisitions
Marc Andreessen's Opsware goes to HP
Opsware, the boring but modestly successful software company founded by Marc Andreessen, has been sold to Hewlett-Packard, the boring but modestly successful hardware company founded by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett, for $1.6 billion. It's a predictable deal — two years ago, I said HP would buy Opsware — but by waiting, Opsware commanded a nice price. The company, after all, only recently crowed about its market cap crossing $1 billion for the first time. Opsware's sale to HP leaves Andreessen free to focus on Ning, his startup which makes software to build social networks. It also put $138 million in his pocket. -
sun valley
Who's selling, who's buying at the Allen confab?
Sun Valley, the quiet Idaho ski resort town, is about to get a charge from Silicon Valley. Allen & Co., the New York investment bank, has been holding an exclusive conference there for 25 years, but until recently, the invite list has been limited to old-media moguls. On the invite list for this year's conference, which kicks off tonight: Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg, the social-news website, which he cofounded with Kevin Rose. Here's why we think Adelson's on the list — and who else might show up. More » -
ning
Marc Andreessen's new social networking startup Ning has reportedly raised a "big, big round of funding." [TechCrunch]
622
Comment by Carlos: Well Marc's blog about funding is certainly not hypocritical then. He was saying that it's good to take wayyy... more » | Other threads
-
aging moguls
Marc Andreessen, founder of the software companies Netscape, Opsware, and Ning, turns 36 on Sunday. Happy birthday, you old fart! -
lifewatch
Return of the Ning
After impressing almost no one for so, so long, Ning has relaunched and reclaimed the hearts and minds of techbloggers. Ning allows the free construction of Facebookesque social networks, customizable with a variety of content and content sources. Construction tools are dead easy, using a drag-and-drop layout similar to Typepad. Ning — largely funded by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen and cofounded by Web 2.0 hottie Gina Bianchini — is banking on the contextual ad market to support the site (though subscribers can sell their own ads by forking over a few bucks). Fortunately for nostalgia's sake, some of Ning's early triumphs remain intact — for example, Who Is a Bigger Douche.
568
By Chris MohneyComment by MediaStarz: We use Ning for [www.mediastarz.co.uk] an advertising social networking community and have had great success with it, which is good... more » | Other threads
-
ning
In Brief
- Om Malik discusses Microsoft's fear of online apps. Apparently they've never been to Ning, home of web2.0 abandonware, with notable apps like Who's a Bigger Douche. [Business 2.0]
-
marc andreessen
Ning
Those pesky customers visited Ning. After co-founder Marc Andreessen said, "Ideally we ll never meet any of our customers," some of those customers organized a trip to the office. Marc was ready with pastries and decorations. More »hatesloves meeting customers -
techcrunch
TechCrunch stock watch
Tech Memeorandum is a fine place to catch buzz — if you just want to hang out with the other top bloggers. But TechCrunch's Michael Arrington can get you in early. More »
- 1
1-37 of 37 for "Valleywag, Ning"
