In the coming recession, social networks are likely to be included among bare essentials.

That's actually a pretty wise thing to do. He did it with Opsware, and definitely didn't regret it.

It's the only way Ning survives the downturn.

I can't wait to see Andreessen with a painted head like his fellow Planet of the Apes mutants.

His assessment of Ning's traffic and growth naturally differs profoundly from Valleywag's. Who's lying? What's their cash burn rate?

Has anyone here really used Ning to set up a network? I read wildly divergent views of how good it is.

non technical people find it easy to use and set up.

I find a lot of Ning porn networks (not like I'm specifically searching for them, ahem)

andreesen's one of the few people in silicon valley who aren't glorified lottery winners; he actually knows what he's doing

@ifstone: Ning is Yahoo Groups 2.0 that's all. You get decent "shared space" to administer but nothing special. He would have to do something radical to make money and justify his $500M valuation.

@Rick: I call your bullshit. As entrepreneur he was born with a silver spoon - the ultimate lotter winner. Before Netscape he was a decent coder but no businessman. His later ventures Opsware and now Ning were premised on taking a shitload of OPM (Other's People Money) and letting star-struck underlings take the fall till they get it right (many iterations).

@scalawag: what you've just outlined is pretty strong support for "knows what he's doing"

@Rick: He is acting as glorified VC or investment banker hedging bets, rather than entrepreneur who understands his business. Look at Sequoia's view on sustainable companies: [www.sequoiacap.com]

FRUGALITY
Focus spending on what's critical. Spend only on the priorities and maximize profitability.

INFERNO
Start with only a little money. It forces discipline and focus. A huge market with customers yearning for a product developed by great engineers requires very little firepower.

Andreessen and "scrappy" do not belong in the same sentence.

compromise- "he knows how to work the system"

@michaellamb: If I may: "he is famous so he can scam the system"

*Yawn*

Ning and Anderson must think if people are stupid enough to flush money down farcebook, then why not Ning?

@Fidel on the Roof: Well played with the Facebook tie-in!

Andreessen spends a lot of time on his blog trying very hard to show you how smart he is, and the subject is usually money. He seems to have way too much time on his hands.

He's a bright guy, but it pretty much fulfills the profile of the rich valleyhole.

For niche professional groups, Ning works well. People often don't have time to navigate the bells and whistles of Facebook just to network, and LinkedIn doesn't have the fully formed social media thing yet.

Behold! Those millions will give Andreesen the muscle to rule the post-Apocalyptic Valley as Ning the Merciless, alongside his CEO consort Queen Ningina.

[www.cpinternet.com]