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Historic Google, Inc. business check, 6 x 2.75, filled out in another hand and signed by Brin, "Sergey Brin," payable to Geonexus for $33,475, January 19, 1999, with the memo noting: "rent + sec deposit." Google's address is given as "555 Bryant #106, Palo Alto, CA 94301." In fine condition. Encapsulated and graded by PSA/DNA as "MINT 9."
Google, Inc. was officially incorporated on September 7, 1998, by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as a way to bring their 'PageRank' algorithm—an improved method of ranking internet search results, developed in the course of their Stanford doctoral work—to the masses. This check, written just four months later, is therefore one of the earliest checks written after the founding of Google. Moreover, it secured the company's first office space: having received several million dollars in venture capital investments, Google, Inc. moved out of its Menlo Park garage (at the home of Susan Wojcicki) and into its first real office space in Palo Alto's 'Lucky Building'—famed as an incubator for several noted Silicon Valley startups—at 165 University Avenue. The recipient of this check, Geonexus Communications, Inc., is documented as having offices at 165 University Avenue from at least 1994 to 1999; Google might have been subletting the space from what seems to be a now-defunct company.
Representing Google's early, rapid growth—the firm occupied the 'Lucky Building' for only a few months before needing to move to an even larger space, a victim of its own success—this check documents an important investment as Google's innovative search began to catch on.
The consignor notes: "In August of 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a check to Google for $100,000 becoming the initial investor in the company. It took a few weeks for the check to be cashed because Google was not yet an incorporated company. On September 7 1998, Google became an incorporated company and the first checking account with the name Google Inc was opened. The address used to open the account, 555 Bryant #106 Palo Alto CA is currently a UPS Store which Google used as a mailing address. The actual offices were in a garage in Menlo Park. It appears that the first check number used to set up the account was number 2000 to give the appearance of an established account/company…
I joined the company in April of 2002. I worked in the Finance department as the manager of Disbursements and Payroll. I was the first manager level hired in the Finance department. I came across these checks as we were moving from one location to another, as we did frequently. The checks were to be discarded to make room for other files. The company was growing very fast at the time. I kept them thinking it would be fun to have from a historical perspective."
