On August 19, 2004 Larry Page and Sergey Brin fulfilled every entrepreneur's dream: to cash in, and cash in big. Today in start-up history, the duo took Google public to the tune of $1.2 billion. While the company's IPO was far from smooth, it performed—and continues to perform—relatively well on the stock market (despite its recent "rut"). Even on its first of trading, Google stock did better than analysts had expected. That day Google entered the market at what now seems like a measly $85 a share, and closed at $100.34.

Four years later, Google goes for about $500 a share, and has become of the great start-up success stories in recent history. Not bad for two guys who started the biz while students at Stanford.