Before Andrews joined Netscape last August, he had spent more than 16 years in Silicon Valley working or consulting for about 20 different companies, from International Business Machines Corp. "I've seen more dawns at this company than any other," jokes Robert Andrews, who oversees Netscape's site on the World Wide Web. Employees know what it's like to pull all-nighters as they rush to get new products out and onto the Internet. Although the stock has cooled, the pace inside the company hasn't. Its stock, offered at $28 a share, rocketed in the first day of trading to $75 a share, before closing at $58.25. Netscape exploded into public view last August with one of the flashiest stock market debuts Wall Street has ever seen. It has relied on a seasoned team of executives that could channel the creative energies of whiz kids like Andreessen.Īmid the mania it helped generate among consumers about surfing the Web, the company kept its focus on the most lucrative market - the business world. It has built a clever network of alliances, so that other companies stand to profit from its success. Today, the company estimates that its browser is used by 20 million to 30 million people, and many analysts now consider Netscape the strongest long-run competitor to the industry giant, Microsoft Corp.Ĭonversations with Netscape's top managers produce several other explanations for the company's remarkable business success:
A year ago, the company was a gee-whiz start-up with about 200 employees and a loss of $4.3 million for the first six months of the year. This dizzying speed in bringing new products to market is just one of the reasons for Netscape's stunning success. before joining Netscape as employee number 45 in September 1994. "This is the fastest-pace environment I've ever worked in," said Fay Mark, a software manager who was with Silicon Graphics Inc. He was determined to break through a time-consuming part of the product development cycle known as "beta testing." His solution was to use the public as beta testers - by giving away the Netscape software for free and letting the millions of people who snapped it up electronically do the debugging. "I want to ship products every three months," Andreessen told Schell, who said that he responded bluntly: "You can't do it." Shipping products every six months would be tough, Schell told Andreessen.Įven in the software business, nobody had ever moved that fast. But Marc Andreessen, then a 23-year-old whiz kid who dreamed up the first Netscape browser for cruising the World Wide Web, had other ideas. in late 1994, he already knew a lot about building products from his more than 15 years in Silicon Valley. When Rick Schell interviewed for the job of head of engineering at Netscape Communications Corp.
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