The next small thing

Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen is willing to invest amounts as little as $50,000 on great ideas

Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen is willing to invest amounts as little as $50,000 on great ideas

If you have been hanging around with IT people especially the Internet guys you don't need to be told that 'NBT' stands for Next Big Thing. While this word is not used so often these days, it was extremely popular during the dot-com boom, when venture capitalists (VCs) fell all over themselves to invest in the NBT, whatever it was.

The idea man: Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen wants to push small ideas that may one day become great concepts

And now, it looks like these days may come back in a small way, if Marc Andreessen the co-founder of Netscape who was once hailed as the next Bill Gates has his way. This once-upon-a-time king-of-the-hill has now teamed up with Ben Horowitz, a long-time business partner, to start a VC called Andreessen Horowitz.

Small wonder
Andreessen seems to have his ideas clear he knows certain things concerning technology exceedingly well, and wants to stick to his core competency. This means that stuff like nanotech is out because Andreessen wants to only back IT.

While this may seem like a narrow focus, it is not IT, all said and done, is an extremely hot and interesting area and will remain so for quite some time. But the most interesting thing is that he wants to invest even small sums on promising ideas. Sums as low as $50,000.

Big ideas
Though Andreessen and Horowitz have a $300 million fund and may even invest as much as $50 million on an appealing idea, the fact that they are also willing to think small is particularly appealing to us because it shows that they are ever at the service of Davids who want to chuck stones at Goliaths.

Andreessen and Horowitz also seem to have the pulse of the market right they have privately invested in social networking companies like Facebook and Twitter and together, it is hoped that they will come up with something great.

What next?
Of course, while it is nice to invest small, the supreme test of any VC is the money it makes. This means that this new company will have to try and stay ahead of the curve and find out ideas that might one day become great projects.

Once, it was the browser, now it is social networking. What will come up next? If Andreessen can find it or fund somebody who does then he could reclaim the glory that was once his before Microsoft's Internet Explorer crushed Netscape Navigator.