As I kind this text, Google’s $2 TRILLION market cap makes it the fourth most beneficial firm on the planet. Google was based in 1998 and went public in 2004. In 2024, Google generated $348 billion in income and $100 billion in revenue.
Google’s two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at present rank #9 and #10 on our real-time checklist of the richest people on the planet, due to their $150 billion and $141 billion web worths, respectively.
And Larry and Sergey are under no circumstances alone in turning into extraordinarily rich due to Google. Countless Google staff have change into multi-millionaires. Dozens have change into hundred-millionaires, and some have even change into billionaires.
In 1999, a lately divorced massage therapist took a part-time job at Google. The job paid a pair hundred {dollars} every week… however it additionally got here with a number of inventory choices. When Google went public a number of years later, she was a multi-millionaire. Or take Charlie Ayers. AKA Chef Charlie. Chef Charlie additionally took a job at Google in 1999. He was awarded 40,000 pre-IPO shares of Google. When Charlie was interviewed in 2007 by MSNBC, he had not bought a single share. At that time, his shares had been price $26 million.
Bottom line. If you had been someway fortunate sufficient to land a job at Google between 1999 and 2004, you might be in all probability fairly completely satisfied proper now.
Here’s a enjoyable hypothetical: Imagine you had a time machine. And think about you took that point machine to 1998 when Google was nonetheless a germ of an thought within the brains of two Stanford Ph.D college students. You strike up a friendship, and ultimately, after they’re able to launch their thought right into a enterprise, you supply to take a position $250,000.
Imagine what your life could be like proper now. Well, right now we’ll let you know the story of a man who would not should think about that state of affairs. It was his actual life, minus the time machine.
(Photo by John Lamparski/WireImage)
To set this story up, I’m going to point out you a listing of the ten people who at present serve on Google’s Board of Directors:
- Larry Page: Co-founder
- Sergey Brin: Co-founder
- Sundar Pichai: Google CEO
- John Hennessy: A pc chip innovator who is mostly considered “the godfather of Silicon Valley.” He has served on the board since 2004.
- Frances Arnold: Recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Appointed to the board in 2019.
- Martin Chavez: The former CFO of Goldman Sachs. Appointed in 2020.
- Roger Ferguson: A former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and former member of the FED’s Board of Governors. Appointed in 2016.
- Robin Washington: The President and COO of Salesforce. Appointed in 2019.
- John Doerr: Chairman of Kleiner Perkins, one of many richest and most influential enterprise capitalists of all time, thanks largely to his resolution to take a position $25 million into Google in June 1999. John has been a board member since that funding in 1999.
And then rounding out the checklist, one last identify:
#10: Ram Shriram
Ram Shriram? I’m guessing even hardcore Silicon Valley/San Francisco tech staff have by no means heard that identify. To be honest, I have never heard of numerous individuals on the checklist above, however I perceive how their profession accomplishments paved the best way.
To offer you some further context, the Wikipedia bio of Frances Arnold (#5) – the Nobel Prize winner – is over 4,000 phrases. The bio for Roger Ferguson (#7) – the previous Federal Reserve Governor – is 2,000 phrases.
Ram Shriram’s wiki bio is 336 phrases. Perhaps extra confusingly, should you lower it down simply to the “Career” part, it is 55 phrases. It’s so brief, I can take a screenshot and paste the whole part proper right here:
You wouldn’t suppose somebody with such a scant resume would have the gravitas to serve on Google’s Board of Directors. Maybe he was simply appointed? Maybe Wikipedia’s editors have not had time to replace his web page?
Nope.
Ram Shriram has served on Google’s Board of Directors longer than anybody OTHER THAN LARRY AND SERGEY… as a result of he’s the luckiest/smartest enterprise capital investor of all time.
From India to Netscape to Amazon
Ram Shriram’s path to Silicon Valley did not start with elite connections or enterprise capital. It began in Chennai, India, the place he was raised by a single mom after shedding his father in a automotive accident at age three. His mom, a professor of English on the University of Madras, instilled in him the type of self-discipline that will information his total profession. When it got here time to pursue a U.S. schooling, Shriram had no clear technique to afford it, so he satisfied his grandfather to mortgage the household residence to safe a financial institution mortgage.
He earned his MBA from the University of Michigan, then landed his first job at Sycor, which was later acquired by Northern Telecom. Shriram transitioned from engineering to worldwide advertising, touring the world earlier than ultimately securing a switch to California, largely to flee Minneapolis winters. That transfer introduced him to the center of Silicon Valley within the early Eighties.
In 1994, Shriram joined Netscape as a vice chairman earlier than the corporate had shipped a product or earned a single greenback. He helped lead the browser’s international distribution technique in the course of the chaotic rise of the early web, staying via each the rocket-ship progress and Microsoft’s aggressive assault. Netscape taught him easy methods to construct and scale a platform, however it additionally confirmed him what to not do. Years later, he would consult with his private takeaways from Netscape as his “book of mistakes.”
After Netscape, he grew to become president of Junglee, a worth comparability startup that caught the eye of Jeff Bezos. In 1998, Amazon acquired Junglee for $185 million and introduced Shriram on as VP of Business Development. The acquisition did not pan out the best way Amazon hoped. Not solely did Junglee’s know-how not combine properly into Amazon, its staff – who had been pressured to maneuver from the Bay Area to Seattle, HATED the local weather of the Pacific Northwest. They all give up after a number of months, and Amazon would ultimately write off the whole $185 million buy worth.
Google In 1997-1998
Upon returning to the Bay Area, Ram’s former Junglee builders instructed him a few new search engine with a humorous identify whose accuracy was blowing their minds. A bunch of search engines like google and yahoo existed at this level, however they had been horrible, spam-and-porn-filled messes full of advertisements that did not present good outcomes. Larry and Sergey stumbled upon a novel strategy for organizing the net by making use of a metric they invented referred to as PageRank, which sorted web sites not simply by key phrases however by what number of different websites linked into them. This proved to be a strong proxy for proving authority.
Larry and Sergey had spent many of the earlier 12 months growing their algorithm and co-authoring a dissertation titled:
“The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine”
Google’s First Two Checks
One fateful morning in the summertime of 1998, Larry and Sergey secured their very first angel investment. They had tapped a Stanford professor named David Cheriton to rearrange a gathering with Andy Bechtolsheim, a former Stanford Ph.D scholar who went on to discovered Sun Microsystems. After viewing a demo of Google, not solely did Andy write a test for $100,000, however so did David Cheriton. (David wasn’t simply any professor; in 1995, he co-founded an organization with Andy referred to as Granite, which was acquired a yr later for $220 million…)
When Andy and David wrote the checks out to “Google Inc.” there wasn’t technically a proper authorized firm shaped but. Larry and Sergey needed to shortly type an organization and open a checking account earlier than they may deposit the checks.
Google’s Third Check
Thanks to his experiences at Netscape, Junglee and Amazon, Shriram immediately noticed the facility and alternative of a extremely improved search engine. Having befriended Larry and Sergey via his former Junglee co-workers, Ram additionally supplied to spend money on their startup. Larry and Sergey eagerly accepted.
One month after David and Andy’s mixed $200,000 angel funding, Ram Shriram grew to become Google’s third investor when he handed Larry and Sergey a $250,000 test. By this level, the Google boys had a checking account.
David and Andy had different jobs and weren’t notably desirous about being concerned within the day-to-day operations of the startup, so Google’s first Board of Directors grew to become Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Ram Shriram. John Doerr was added in June 1999 when Kleiner Perkins invested $25 million.
Cashing Out
When Google went public in 2004, Ram Shriram owned 5.3 million shares, roughly 2% of the corporate. On the day of the IPO, Ram’s shares had been price $450 million. He additionally bought $30 million shares on that day. Not a nasty return for a $250,000 funding he made simply SIX YEARS earlier.
Ram has bought a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} price of his Google shares over the a long time. According to the corporate’s newest SEC filings, Ram Shriram at present owns roughly 2.47 million Class C (GOOG) shares and a pair of.11 million Class A (GOOGL) shares. At present inventory costs, his holdings are price over $747 million. Combined along with his different gross sales, right now Ram Shriram’s web price is…
$3 billion
Again, not dangerous for a $250,000 funding.
After cashing out, Ram based a enterprise capital agency referred to as Sherpalo (a mixture of the phrases “sherpa” and “palo” from Palo Alto). Sherpalo’s investments web page options dozens of corporations, together with Gusto, Stripe, and Paperless Post.
Ram and his spouse have additionally donated a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to charity. In honor of his presents, Stanford named one among its buildings the Shriram Center for Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering. The advanced homes 34 custom-tailored analysis labs targeted on biomedicine, molecular biology, well being and environmental sciences, chemistry, and engineering.
Ram and his spouse Vijaya have two daughters, Jhanvi and Ketaki. Jhanvi and Ketaki went to Stanford and in 2017 co-founded an AI animation firm referred to as Krikey AI that has raised $22 million thus far. Interestingly, Krikey AI is NOT listed on Sherpalo’s investments web page.
What Could Have Been
As we talked about a second in the past, Ram has bought most of his Google shares over time and has a really spectacular $3 billion web price. But what would have occurred had he by no means bought a single share? Recall that he had 5.3 million shares on the 2004 IPO. After a 2-for-1 inventory break up in 2014 and a 20-for-1 break up in 2022, right now these 5.3 million shares could be 212 million shares. At right now’s inventory worth, 212 million shares of Google could be price $35 billion 🙂
FYI, David Cheriton and Andy Bechtolsheim are price $15 billion and $20 billion right now, respectively. But remember, they each had different investments previous to Google and have truly based a number of different very massive tech corporations after Google.
But Wait, There’s More
Remember that $185 million Amazon set on fireplace when it acquired Junglee? Jeff Bezos in all probability nonetheless holds a grudge towards Ram for that one, proper?
Well… perhaps not.
Because after the Junglee crew returned to the Bay Area, Ram made yet one more introduction for the Google guys — to Jeff Bezos. And in our subsequent piece, we’ll let you know how Bezos’s secret Google funding — organized by Shriram — quietly turned him right into a Google billionaire… whereas he was busy constructing Amazon.
