Andreessen serves on the boards of both eBay and Facebook, and is a chairman of the board of Ning, which he also co-founded. His biggest claim to fame was co-founding Netscape.

Horowitz also has background with Netscape. There he ran several product divisions. He co-founded LoudCloud with Andreessen. This became Opsware, which was later acquired by HP. Horowitz served as vice president and general manager of HP’s Business Technology Organization Unit.

The new firm will focus on investments within the range of $50 thousand to $50 million. The duo also announced its first round of funding at $300 million aimed at entrepreneurs, products, and companies in the tech industry.

"Innovation is thriving despite the current economic climate," says Andreessen. "Ben and I are huge supporters of entrepreneurs and want to help turn today’s sparks of brilliance into the next big thing."

"We see venture investing as a company-specific exercise," says Horowitz. "Therefore, we are looking for the best entrepreneurs and companies regardless of stage."

Andreesen outlines some things they are looking for out of entrepreneurs and companies on his blog. They want motivated entrepreneurs, technical founders, founders that intend to be CEOs, and founders that understand their products.

The firm is looking to invest in categories like consumer Internet, business Internet, mobile software/services, software-powered consumer electronics, infrastructure and apps software, networking, storage, and databases.

The firm is NOT looking to invest in "clean", "green", energy, transportation, life sciences (biotech, drug design, medical devices), nanotech, movie production companies, consumer retail, electric cars, rocket ships, space elevators.

Qik has gained popularity among the tech blogger and citizen journalism circles, thanks to its ability to capture live video and stream it over the Internet. Its integration capabilities with Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and others will likely propel its status well beyond this demographic and into teen popularity.

A high profile investment could be just what the doctor ordered to help Qik achieve such widespread use. The mere fact that teenagers are tied to their mobile phones and social networks would suggest a big future for a service like Qik.

Of course, Qik isn’t the only service of its kind. Competitors like Kyte and Livecast will likely be courted by others with deep pockets as this section of the industry grows full force.