History of Google
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The 1997 Wayback Machine archives are just priceless: web.archive.org/web/19971210065425/http://backrub.stanford.edu/backrub.html. I'm so glad that website exists and started so early. It is just another university research project demo website like any other. Priceless.
Craig Silverstein was the first employee hired, in 1998: www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/the-friendship-that-made-google-huge
In August 1998 they had an their first investment of $100,000 from Andy Bechtolsheim, Sun Microsystems co-founder. Some sources say September 1998. This was an event of legend, the dude dropped by, tested the website for a few minutes, said I like it, and dropped a 100$ check with no paperwork. Google wasn't even incorporated, they had to incorporate to cash the check. They were apparently introduced by one of the teachers, TODO which. Some sources say he had to rush off to another meeting afterwards:
Tried to sell it for 1 million in early 1999... OMG the way the world is. It would be good to learn more about that story, and when they noticed it was fuckup.
One of Google's most interesting stories is how their startup garage owner became an important figure inside Google, and how Sergei married her sister. These were the best garage tenants ever!
Bibliography:
- Video "Anne Wojcicki interview by Talks at Google (2018)" has a few mentions, e.g. youtu.be/pDoALM0q1LA?t=173
- www.theverge.com/2019/12/4/20994361/google-alphabet-larry-page-sergey-brin-sundar-pichai-co-founders-ceo-timeline The rise, disappearance, and retirement of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Good timeline!
Google garage (1998)
Source. Description reads: "The company's sixth employee made this video tour of the office in 1998" so this should be Susan's garage, since the next office move was only in 1999 to 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto.Andy Bechtolsheim's 100.000 check by Discovery UK (2018)
Source. Contains interviews with Andy Bechtolsheim and David Cheriton. The meeting happed in David Cheriton's porch. Andy showed up at 8AM, and he had a meeting at 9AM at Cisco where he worked, so he had to leav early. Andy worked at Cisco after having sold his company Granite Systems, which David co-founded, to Cisco. Particularly cool to see how Andy calculated expected revenue quickly on the back of his mind.