Joe Krause's eXcite got an offer to buy Google for $750,000, and passed.

The search portal Excite (or "eXcite," as it was styled) was founded in 1994 by a group of Stanford University students.

In 1999, Excite had a chance to buy Google, according to MinyanVille. But Excite’s George Bell deemed the $1 million asking price too high. Bell also declined a second offer to take Google for $750,000.

The company went through a complicated skein of mergers and financings, culminating in a deal in which @Home paid $7.2 billion for the company in 1999. By 2001 it was bankrupt.

Kraus now works at Google Ventures, where he is an investor.