“Run it scrappy.”
–Ning co-founder and CEO Gina Bianchini in a meeting with Fortune on Friday. Bianchini came by to give us an update on Ning, the Silicon Valley startup that supplies the infrastructure to help you build your own social networking Web site. (Her chairman and financial backer is Netscape founder Marc Andreessen.)
Sharing her advice about how to weather the recession, Bianchini told us that this downturn feels nothing like the one that hit Silicon Valley eight years ago. Today, she’s says, “We’re not feeling it.” Indeed, Silicon Valley popped its own bubble back then–and she and other entrepreneurs learned lessons that are helping them today. Besides the rule about scrappiness, what other lessons apply? “Raise as much money as you can,” says Bianchini. She and Andreessen have raised $104 million for Ning.
“And this time around, nobody has an advertising budget, so all the start-up money is being funneled into product development,” she adds. In other words, Silicon Valley is acting smarter this time around.–Jessica Shambora