If you haven’t been able to tell, I LOVE TO LEARN (especially when it is something that I am passionate about). One of the coolest things that I have been studying lately are company histories. For example, I was reading the history of Google, Inc. last night and learned the details of how they initially received funding. And guess what — they received angel funding (this might be common knowledge, but I still think that it’s pretty cool to read). Check this out:
Unable to secure the financial support of the major portal players of the day, cofounders Page and Brin decided to make a go of it on their own. They wrote a business plan, put their graduate studies on hold, and searched for an investor. They first approached Andy Bechtolsheim, founder of Sun Microsystems, and friend of a Stanford faculty member. Impressed with their plans, Bechtolsheim wrote a check to Google Inc. for $100,000. The check, however, preceded the incorporation of the company, which followed in 1998.
There are more than 10,000 company histories to learn from. I’ve already noticed the histories of companies like Exxon Mobile, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, and Apple. As you can tell, I still have a lot of reading in front of me!
