In 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim made one of the greatest investments of all time... And he did it on a friend's porch.

Making Billions of Dollars on a Friend's Porch By Marc Chaikin, founder, Chaikin Analytics In 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim made one of the greatest investments of all time... And he did it on a friend's porch. The friend had asked Bechtolsheim to stop by on his way to work. He wanted the wealthy entrepreneur to talk to two Stanford University grad students. The students were working on an interesting project. And they were thinking about turning it into a business. Bechtolsheim agreed to a quick meeting. He was always happy to help young tech entrepreneurs. And he had plenty of firsthand experience to share... Bechtolsheim had made a fortune in the 1980s. He dropped out of Stanford to co-found Sun Microsystems. And the company went on to dominate the workstation computer market in the 1980s and 1990s. Bechtolsheim pulled up to his friend's house at 8 a.m. sharp for the meeting... There, he met a pair of 25-year-olds named Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They had created an Internet search engine that was a lot better than the market's current options. Bechtolsheim sat on the porch while the pair ran a demo on a laptop. The meeting didn't last long. Here's how Brin described it...   [Bechtolsheim] took a quick look at our search engine. We chatted with him a little bit. He said, "Well I don't want you guys to have to take too low of a valuation or to have to worry about these money things right now... Why don't I just write you a check?" So he went back to his car. He came back with his checkbook and wrote us a check for $100,000. With that, Page and Brin had enough money to get Google off the ground. They celebrated by going to Burger King for breakfast. There was one problem, though... Recommended Links: Crisis Alert: SIX Recession Signals Now Flashing RED Stocks are clinging to near-record valuations. But with political chaos... trade wars... tariffs... and record debt, it's clear: A reckoning may be coming. (In fact, six rock-solid recession indicators are now ALL flashing red.) That's why, for the first time in nearly a year, our friends at Stansberry Research are sharing their No. 1 strategy for times of financial turmoil. It's a way to see income AND capital gains potential... all virtually guaranteed by LAW. For the next few days, they're sharing the full strategy at no cost. Full details here. Is This Elon's True Agenda? Now that Elon Musk has positioned himself inside President Donald Trump's administration, every investor in America is trying to figure out what he might do next. One veteran tech investor claims he knows the playbook. He says Elon's not crazy, he's not impulsive... You just need to know the full story (including why it could soon change life in America, forever). Click here to see how this could impact you. Bechtolsheim made the check out to "Google Inc." But the company didn't exist yet – at least, not officially. For the next month, the check sat in Page's dorm room while the pair filed the paperwork to set up a corporation. Bechtolsheim remembers the meeting a bit differently. In a 2015 interview, he said that Google was "one of the best ideas I'd ever seen." He used the Internet a lot. And he saw the problems with existing search engines like Yahoo, AltaVista, and Excite. As he said in that same 2015 interview, "I couldn't find stuff anymore on AltaVista, so I was desperate for a better search [engine]." The key difference came down to Google's algorithm... Instead of just looking for keywords on a page, it checked to see how many other sites linked to a particular page. Bechtolsheim liked this approach. It was like academic publishing. In that field, the most important papers get cited more often. And in turn, that proves their reliability as a source. The business plan made sense, too. Google would deliver ads based on a user's search. And then, it would charge companies a few cents whenever someone clicked on an ad. At the time, banner ads were the main form of online advertising. Bechtolsheim thought Google's "sponsored links" would work much better. He also didn't mind putting $100,000 into a company that didn't exist yet. As he said in the 2015 interview, "The concern I had is, if they didn't get going, this great idea [might not happen]." Today, the story of the first Google investor is part of Silicon Valley lore. And everyone knows how it turned out... Within a few short years, Google became the world's top search engine. As the Internet took off, the company made billions of dollars by collecting a few cents on every ad click. No one knows exactly how much money Bechtolsheim made. But according to reports, he got between 2.5 million and 5 million shares for his investment. That means he likely made billions of dollars on his original $100,000 stake. Today, Bloomberg estimates Bechtolsheim's total net worth at around $25 billion. That puts him at No. 77 on the publication's list of billionaires. And as we all know, Google is still going strong as well... The search engine was just the start for the tech giant. It now operates under the name Alphabet (GOOGL). Alphabet currently holds a "bullish" overall rating in the Power Gauge. In fact, over the past five years, the company has barely had a "bearish" month in our system. That's the power of a strong brand. And it all started on a porch in California. Good investing, Marc Chaikin Market View Major Indexes and Notable Sectors     # Hld:     Bullish     Neutral     Bearish Dow 30 +0.28% 11 13 6 S&P 500 +0.67% 90 256 152 Nasdaq +1.23% 31 49 20 Small Caps +1.38% 425 1019 462 Bonds +0.31% Energy +2.1% 3 13 6 — According to the Chaikin Power Bar, Small Cap stocks and Large Cap stocks remain somewhat Bearish. Major indexes are mixed. *  *  *  * Sector Tracker Sector movement over the last 5 days Communication +2.07% Utilities +1.34% Energy +0.6% Materials +0.43% Health Care +0.35% Discretionary +0.09% Staples -0.18% Real Estate -0.24% Financial -0.35% Industrials -0.9% Information Technology -1.14% *  *  *  * Industry Focus Capital Markets Services 24 35 3 Over the past 6 months, the Capital Markets subsector (KCE) has outperformed the S&P 500 by +15.38%. Its Power Bar ratio, which measures future potential, is Very Strong, with more Bullish than Bearish stocks. It is currently ranked #4 of 21 subsectors and has moved down 2 slots over the past week. Top Stocks GS The Goldman Sachs Gr IBKR Interactive Brokers BK The Bank of New York *  *  *  * Top Movers Gainers PLTR +23.99% SMCI +8.6% MPC +6.74% XYL +5.24% FOXA +5.18% Losers EL -16.07% PYPL -13.17% MRK -9.07% KKR -8.53% CLX -7.24% *  *  *  * Earnings Report Earnings Surprises MPC Marathon Petroleum Corporation Q4 $0.77 Beat by $0.75 EL The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Q2 $0.62 Beat by $0.30 IT Gartner, Inc. Q4 $5.45 Beat by $2.19 CNC Centene Corporation Q4 $0.80 Beat by $0.31 ESS Essex Property Trust, Inc. Q4 $0.65 Missed by $-0.71 *  *  *  * You have received this e-mail as part of your subscription to PowerFeed. If you no longer want to receive e-mails from PowerFeed, click here. You're receiving this e-mail at STEVENMAGALLANES520.NIMS@BLOGGER.COM. For questions about your account or to speak with customer service, call +1 (877) 697-6783 (U.S.), 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Eastern time or e-mail info@chaikinanalytics.com. 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