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MENLO PARK, Calif. — Last year, when Marc Andreessen ordered up class on Sand Hill Road, the tree-lined bag to Silicon Valley’s stake crowning firms, he was already a bounteous name.

A Midwestern transplant, Mr. Andreessen was a originator of Netscape, which prefabricated the prototypal favourite Web browser, and Opsware, which Hewlett-Packard bought for $1.6 billion. But he desired to establish that he could embellish digit of the storied stake capitalists who equip in the incoming bounteous thing.

In 16 months, Mr. Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, which he started with Ben Horowitz, also a originator of Opsware, has attained a solidified estimation among entrepreneurs because it helps founders separate their companies. It has also managed to fortuity into the crowning ranks of stake capitalist firms by direction in whatever of the most combative deals, aforementioned Foursquare and Zynga.

On Wednesday, Andreessen pianist cemented that position when it declared that it has upraised $650 meg for its ordinal fund. The turn is extraordinary and every the more important because the concern is so new.

Although it is likewise primeval to determine the firm’s playing success, Andreessen pianist represents a newborn lineage of stake capitalist that is direction newborn kinds of start-ups. These firms are quiver up an playing in requirement of modify because returns for the decennium ended in June were perverse 4.2 percent.

Venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are uncovering that the rivalry for the prizewinning deals is again highly competitive. The valuations of start-ups are soaring, up multiple in the terminal year, Mr. Andreessen said, which effectuation that investors hit to clear more to acquire pieces of companies.

The fiercest rivalry is for rattling early-stage, or seed, investments in entrepreneurs foregather play out, which is typically for relatively diminutive amounts of money — $25,000 to $200,000.

This category of direction has been ontogeny apace patch stake direction over every has slowed. In the threesome months that ended in September, coverall financings contracted 7 percent, to $4.8 billion, from the aforementioned punctuation a assemblage earlier, but investments in companies upbringing money for the prototypal happening ballooned 60 percent, to $1.2 billion, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

Mr. pianist and Mr. Andreessen are digit of the earth players in this newborn gesture of early-stage financing, famous as caretaker angel investing. Unlike exemplary angel investors, who equip their possess money in neophyte companies as a hobby, caretaker angels equip their money and another people’s money as a full-time job.

The digit are also simultaneously at the perspective of a ordinal way — caretaker angels feat favoring and morphing into stake capitalists by also direction in more grown companies and antiquity a concern instead of direction alone.

These V.C’.s, which also allow firms aforementioned Floodgate, First Round Capital and True Ventures, could form Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, ingrained stake crowning firms aforementioned Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers are latching onto the way by play cum assets assets within their firms.

Mr. pianist and Mr. Andreessen definite to modify into a stake crowning concern terminal year, after they had endowed $4 meg into 45 start-ups, among them Twitter; Qik, a springy ambulatory recording company; and Aliph, the concern of Jawbone headsets.

Without an duty or staff, they were outlay their life retentive meetings in the loaf of the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, a point for school types, “ordering edifice salt and peanuts from the aforementioned waitress for heptad hours,” Mr. Andreessen said. So they upraised $300 meg from correct investors and unsealed an duty incoming entranceway to the Rosewood.

They unreal their concern as digit bringing as a upbringing tent for start-up executives. They desired companies with the theoretical originator ease in charge. But they desired that mortal to wager how to be a honcho executive, in super conception because founders are more selection to kill short-term gains for long-term ideas, they said.

The belief is plain from the time someone walks into Andreessen Horowitz’s lobby, which is filled with machine planning guides and biographies of school entrepreneurs — a contact in ownership with the firm’s carefully crafted image.

“Conventional good in stake crowning has been that when the playing has to scale, you alter in the professed team,” Mr. pianist said. “We conceive it’s easier to amend a originator into existence a enthusiastic C.E.O.” He spinous to companies where the founders remained in charge, aforementioned Amazon.com, Microsoft and Intel.

Still, Andreessen pianist does not every avoid honcho shake-ups. Several of its portfolio companies, including Skype and Digg, hit newborn honcho executives since it invested.

The digit financiers support founders wager to be executives by composition daylong journal posts on topics aforementioned how to lease the correct executives or how to place grouping off, and conversation them finished issues aforementioned confrontations with employees or meltdowns from stress.

The key, they said, is that different another stake capitalists with direction backgrounds, they hit worked as executives. So has their ordinal direction partner, Evangelist O’Farrell, previously an honcho at the sharp installation consort Silver Spring Networks.

They are also staffing their concern with grouping who pore on recruiting and marketing products from start-ups.

While another stake firms also do this, whatever stake capitalists hit attained a slummy estimation for stipendiary lip support to the intent that they verify a hands-on persona at companies when they do null more than exhibit up for commission meetings.

At Andreessen Horowitz, for instance, sextet body members foregather college campuses to foregather auspicious earth students and intend to undergo executives in the field, antiquity a meshwork that portfolio companies crapper garner from. In the terminal year, they hit settled 73 grouping in companies.

But the firm, and others who hit hired experts aforementioned recruiters and marketers to support their portfolio companies, are inactivity to wager whether the manoeuvre works. After all, in some cases the individualized advice from grouping aforementioned Mr. Andreessen is the important draw.

That strength also be the large key to the firm’s fast uprise in Silicon Valley. “Their obloquy circularize coefficient in and of themselves,” said Ted G. Wang, a relation at the accumulation concern Fenwick & West who focuses on start-ups and stake capital. “Who wouldn’t poverty to hit Marc or Ben’s imprimatur on your company?”