Craigslist Founder, Craig Newmark: How I Transformed a Simple Email List Into a Billion-Dollar Business | E78
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Who is Craig Newmark and what is his impact?
A nerd's gotta do what a nerd's gotta do.
Craig Newmark, today we get to speak with the founder of Craigslist. He would say that he's a nerd and amateur philanthropist. I would say that Craig Newmark actually revolutionized how people buy, sell, and connect with their communities.
How did Craigslist start as a simple mailing list?
Well, I had moved to San Francisco and I was starting to rediscover the internet and a lot of people helped me with everyday stuff. And then I decided early 95, I should reciprocate. So I started a very simple events related mailing list. We hit a million page views per month. And so in early 99, I turned Craigslist the hobby. into Craigslist, the company.
Why did Craig Newmark reject VC funding for Craigslist?
The hard decision I made had to do with offers and so on from the bankers and venture capitalists. They told me that they wanted to throw billions of dollars at me. I would have to do the usual Silicon Valley thing, monetizing everything, and arguably selling out my community. So I decided...
Craig Newmark, today we get to speak with the founder of Craigslist. He would say that he's a nerd and amateur philanthropist. I would say that Craig Newmark actually revolutionized how people buy, sell, and connect with their communities. I think it's incredible. And Craigslist disrupted traditional, classified, and created a digital marketplace for billions of monthly page views. So that's incredible. Now, Craig is involved with so many causes and we'll talk about it, but I want to take you back in time if that's okay. And I want to know what shaped you to become the Craig that we see today.
What shaped Craig Newmark's values and moral compass?
I've recently reflected on my background and how things started, and I realized it has to do with Sunday school at the Jewish Community Center in Mars 10, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Levin made sure that I had a pretty good grounding leading to a good moral compass. They taught me to treat people like I want to be treated. They taught me to know when enough is enough. And they taught me that now and then I should be my brother's keeper. my sister's keeper, and that defined my initial moral compass. It was reinforced at different points of my life. For example, in high school, I took a really good U.S. history and civics class. Mr. Shulsky made sure I understood the role of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution and how you have to both simultaneously fight crime while respecting due process and those rights in the Bill of Rights. There's been other influences. Most recently, very importantly, there's this guy named Leonard Cohen, who is effectively my rabbi, and his music also serves to reinforce my moral compass.
I just love that. And I love that you reflected on what shaped you. I want to take you back in time to your childhood. Again, like you said, small Jewish boy, New Jersey. If that's okay to take you there, Craig, and tell me if not, at age 13, you lost your father. I personally, when I lost my mom, I literally wrote how losing my mom changed my life. How did that heartbreaking experience impact you?
I'm not sure. I've been thinking that I went numb on the event, on the whole situation, and I think I was already having some socialization problems. So as a way of retreating from people, maybe, That pushed me pretty hard in the direction of poor socialization, inability to read social cues. Some of that's the essence of being a nerd in the original sense. It helped and didn't help that I was smart in the academic sense, good at science, technology, math, but I grew to be pretty poor at reading people, working with people in high school. And that nerd quality, that lack of social skills, that's still a problem for me even now. I mean, I've learned a lot of things the hard way, and I can simulate or fake social skills for a while, but not very long.
I love how you laugh about yourself, about being a nerd. You even write about it on LinkedIn. And you still were able to change the world with your nerdiness. So we'll talk and you continue to do that, which to me is mind blowing. But also, how amazing is that? But I do want to take you like you with that. You started working as a computer programmer, right? And like IBM and Charles Schwab. Wow.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who is Craig Newmark and what is his impact?
0:00–0:21
2
How did Craigslist start as a simple mailing list?
0:21–0:47
3
Why did Craig Newmark reject VC funding for Craigslist?
0:47–2:01
4
What shaped Craig Newmark's values and moral compass?
2:01–5:21
5
How did Craig Newmark transition from CEO to customer service?
5:21–9:44
6
What were the challenges Craigslist faced while scaling?
9:44–13:44
7
How does Craigslist operate without significant funding?
13:44–33:42
Speakers
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