Exclude directory in find

find . -name 'foo-exclude-me' -prune -o -name 'foo*' -print

With no -print, the implicit default action applies to every match, even pruned ones. The explicit -print applies only under the specified conditions, which are -name 'foo*' only in the else branch of -name 'foo-exclude-me'.

Generally speaking, use an explicit -print whenever you're doing something more complex than a conjunction of predicates.

Your second attempt with ! -path './foo-exclude-me/*' didn't work because ./foo-exclude-me doesn't match ./foo-exclude-me/* (no trailing /). Adding ! -path ./foo-exclude-me would work.