“As The New York Times reported, we are the marketplace in the ancient style: chaotic,

unruly and vividly human.”—Craig Newmark

GENE X HWANG/ORANGE PHO TOGRAPHY

don’t view ourselves as competing with anyone, says, has been to get serious about the operation. In No frills: Craig Newmark and because we’re a community service.” early 2000, he hired a CEO, Jim Buckmaster, a CEO Jim Buckmaster operate refugee from a now-defunct dot-com called Credit- craigslist out of a Victorian

Share and share alike Land. Even so, craigslist is nearly all-consuming, home in San Francisco.

The Web site, with its informal, Spartan says Newmark. design—sans advertising—is a widely recognized He remains committed to his original mission, international portal, servicing residents of 190 cities which stems from his family’s Jewish ethics. “That’s in 35 countries. Newmark credits the site’s vitality, the tone I set. I operated on the values I learned as a ease of use, customer service and personal attention kid. I’d like to be more cynical, but the Golden Rule as the reasons for its success. really works. It started off with the ethos that people

“It’s real, lively and very human and very effec- generally share. Sometimes we have difficulty fol-tive,” Newmark says. The site, he adds, encourages “a lowing through, but pretty much everyone believes really good culture of trust.” And, from a practical in helping other people. Another way of putting it is perspective, it’s where millions of people get help we want to give people a break and we want every-with everyday needs like housing and jobs. one to give everyone else a break.”

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With all those employees and overhead from its office within a Victorian home in San Francisco’s A geek gives back Inner Sunset neighborhood, craigslist does have Newmark’s brief craigslist bio describes him as expenses. It generates revenue by charging $75 a hard-core Java and Web programmer “who grew for each help-wanted ad in San Francisco and $25 up wearing a plastic pocket protector and thick in New York and Los Angeles. “We may expand black glasses, taped together, the full nerd cliche.” that very slowly to other cities,” Newmark says, Originally from Morristown, New Jersey, he grew up “but we’re going to stay a mostly free site—about 99 in a home with modest finances. He was 13 when percent free.” his father died. He is a loyal son: The craigslist sec-

Although the company does not disclose tion called “About us/craigslist team” includes an revenues, recent reports suggest $7 million to $10 interview with his mother, Joyce Newmark, as well million, which Newmark will neither confirm nor as some of his childhood photographs. deny. He does, however, disagree with assessments Newmark left Morristown for college at Case that the site has grown quickly. “We’re slow,” he says, Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. “but sure.” After earning a bachelor’s degree in 1975 and a mas-

Thebiggestcraigslistchangeovertime,Newmark ter’s in computer science in 1977, he started his

Name: Craig Newmark

Member since: 1999, after craigslist.org incorporated

Contact: 1381 Ninth Ave., San Francisco, CA 94122

Web: www.craigslist.org

Blog: www.cnewmark.com

Comments about Costco: “Costco has good, honest deals, like the LCD TV I just bought. I am now considering a Vizio TV, a 50-inch plasma, since I want a bigger TV than my CEO. My mom, in Morristown, New Jersey, loves the hot dogs.”