When he was only 28, Sabeer Bhatia got the call every Silicon Valley entrepreneur dreams of: Bill Gates wants to buy your company. Summoned to Microsoft’s command bunker in Redmond, Washington state, he was deposited on the new acquisitions conveyor belt. Round and round the Microsoft campus he went. All 26 buildings. At every stop, Bhatia’s guide helpfully pointed out the vastness of the Microsoft empire. The procession ground on until it reached Gates’s office. Bhatia was ushered in. Bill liked his firm. He hoped they could work together. He wished him well. Bhatia was ushered out. “Next thing is we’re taken into a conference room where there are 12 Microsoft negotiators,” Bhatia recalls. “Very intimidating.” Microsoft’s determined dozen put an offer on the table: $160 million. Take it or leave it. Bhatia played it cool. “I’ll get back to you,” he said.

Eighteen months later Sabeer Bhatia has taken his place among San Francisco’s ultra-rich. He recently purchased a $2-million apartment in rarified Pacific Heights. The place looks like a banker’s lair, and Bhatia acknowledges that the oak paneling and crystal chandeliers might have to go. He hurries over to picture windows that run the length of the room and raises the blinds. Ten floors below, the city slopes away in all directions. The Golden Gate Bridge, and beyond it the Pacific, lie on the horizon. “This is me,” he says. “I bought it for the view.”

A place with a view for a man with a vision. A month after Bhatia walked away from the table, Microsoft ponied up $400 million for his startup. Today Hotmail, the ubiquitous Web-based e-mail service, boasts 50 million subscribers – one quarter of all Internet users. Bhatia is worth $200 million. He is already working on his followup: a “one-click” e-commerce venture called Arzoo! And Bhatia is looking homeward with an ambitious plan to wire India.