Google's Humble Garage Roots: A $100,000 Cheque Changed Everything

Google's story began in 1995 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University. They were initially unimpressed, but somehow found common ground and started working together on a search engine project called Backrub.

Their innovation was that it looked at links between pages to determine relevance, unlike other search engines of the time. They changed the name from Backrub to Google in 1998, inspired by 'googol,' the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros.

A turning point came when Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, wrote a cheque for $100,000 made out to Google Inc. However, the company didn't exist yet on paper. This forced Page and Brin to legally form Google the very next day so they could deposit the money.

From their humble garage beginnings in Menlo Park, California, Google slowly built its team and shaped a unique culture that still influences the company today. The first server was reportedly built using Lego blocks, and pets around the workplace became a tradition.