August 20, 2011
Marc Andreessen: "Software is eating the world"
In a Wall Street Journal essay, Marc Andreessen argues that every industry is becoming a software business.
Quote
“Software is eating the world.”
What it was for
Written at the height of the mobile and cloud boom, the line justified VC bets on Uber, Airbnb, and SaaSSoftware as a Service — applications delivered over the internet on a subscription basis. eating hotels, taxis, and shrink-wrapped software. It aged into a cliché — because it was largely right.
People
- Marc Andreessen — author
Why it's here
The thesis statement of the 2010s startup era.
Why it mattered
It reframed non-tech industries as software delivery problems.
What it solved
Investors and incumbents underestimated how fast software would disrupt physical businesses.
Media
ImageMarc AndreessenJD Lasica, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark found NetscapeApril 4, 1994