Andreessen, speaking at GE's Industrial Internet event in San Francisco with GE CEO Jeff Immelt, noted that software-as-a-service is not new, but believes this year is the year it really has taken off. "You've had Workday (with its IPO), and Salesforce.com doing extremely well. Big corporate customers are starting to tip on SaaS," he said. "The customers in the pipeline (of these SaaS companies) are the who's who."
Asked about what large corporations like GE should do to get involved in new software technologies, Andreessen encouraged them to get out there and learn. Besides being "on the ground" in Silicon Valley (which GE has done by opening a local office), Andreessen said companies should engage in the ecosystem, really understand and learn. He also supports corporate venture capital, which he says has gotten a bad rap. "Other companies invest in startups and have investments. Corporate venture capital has gotten a bad name," he said. "Historically whenever there's a stock bubble every corporation invests at the top and loses their shirt. That's the wrong lens. The right lens is learning and the information flow and information networks. The great thing about being an investor is you show up with a check and have an excuse to have a conversation." That's what his firm does as well, Andreessen said.
Andreessen, who cofounded Netscape Communications, also talked about healthcare and the product of one of his portfolio companies, the Jawbone Up, which he was wearing. Prevention is a key to not only healthcare but improving the economy, he said.
Answering a question about the "consumerization of the enterprise," Andreessen said technology is now "trickling up" from consumers to the enterprise. Since the 1950s when computers came out, the newest technology went to large companies like GE, Metlife that paid for expensive products, but now that technology goes to consumers first, Andreessen said. About 10 years ago that modle flipped. The iPad was the big breaktrhough, Andreessen said. When CEOs and boardmembers of a company all wanted to use their iPads in a company, the IT department gave up trying to keep them out. "Now it's the case that you go to an Apple store and see what the enterprise will use in five years," Andreessen said.
Andreessen also talked about his "software eats the world" thesis. In the computer industry the value has migrated from hardware to software. Software developers have therefore been applying this technology to older industries that were not technology focused, he said, citing Border's decision in 2001 to outsource digital to Amazon and the eventual bankruptcy of the company.
Kickstarter and similar crowdfunding sites have made a major impact on how demand for products is created and how products are designed, Andreessen noted. "The demand part of it is really interesting." "With Kickstarter, the idea that the consumer can go out and vote with a click or dollar is a really big deal." Andreessen also cited Obama's election and reeelction as an examples of how people voted with clicks by donating for Obama's campaign.
During the Facebook IPO, the CEO of Morgan Stanley who used to run retail investing and Merrill Lynch said that he could have run the entire Facebook IPO through retail investors, Andreessen said. (My question does that speak to the crowdfunding trend or Facebook hype?) "If he wanted to (he could've done) all $18.5 billion in stock sales entirely through retail channels. There were enough individual investors to click buy. You could've done a $18.5 billion stock placement. I generalize that out. What if model is far more about what individuals deciding what they want to see in the world? Products, politicians. Consumers get to vote with a click and the dollar."
