{"id":238,"date":"2008-04-02T19:35:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-02T19:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html"},"modified":"2008-04-02T19:35:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-02T19:35:00","slug":"interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
<\/a>
For the first interview of my Embracing SUCCESS series I have Craig Newmark<\/span>, Founder of Craigslist<\/a><\/span>, a
site that\u2019s made life easier for millions of people. Every Wednesday I\u2019ll interview someone who\u2019s become successful by following his or her passions. I find Craig inspiring. He\u2019s so down-to-earth and caring about the services he offers, as you\u2019ll see by some of his answers. <\/p>\n

In 1994, Craig saw the beginnings of online communities and news groups and thought the Internet would help him connect with people. He began sending an e-mail list of what he considered cool events in San Francisco to friends. It became popular and more people got added to his mailing list. Then requests came in to list apartments, jobs, etc. Craig decided to move it to a list server. <\/p>\n

People were calling it Craigslist<\/a><\/span> and despite other ideas, the name stuck. Craig still had a day job and ran it as a hobby. In 1998, there were things that needed to be adjusted. He left his day job and worked on developing Craig\u2019s List more seriously. He hired Jim Buckmaster to manage it and now he’s the CEO. <\/p>\n

Craig began Craigslist<\/a><\/span> as a service for San Francisco, but now there are Craigslists all over the country and the world. He still concentrates on giving good customer service and improving what the site offers. He still works in customer service. I once emailed about a problem and heard right back from him! Craig also started the Craigslist Foundation<\/a><\/span>, that provides support for emerging non-profits. So giving back is a very important part of what he strives for!<\/p>\n

Next week the interview will be with Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, the wonderful online radio site. His story is an example of how passion can make you go the distance. I have some other terrific people that I\u2019ll announce next week. <\/p>\n

Interview with Craig Newmark, founder of <\/span>Craigslist<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Why do you think Craigslist has been so successful?
Culture of trust, results from follow through on values like “treat people like you want to be treated.”
Good customer service; First mover in the classified ads space. Site run as a community service, almost all free.<\/span><\/p>\n

What turned the tide\u2039both in the operation AND in your head\u2039from viewing CL as a hobby to seeing the potential of it being a viable business?
Community people let me know that the volunteer operation was failing, and helped me get out of denial.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you view yourself among the other shareholders, since you founded the company? What do you currently do at Craigslist?
I don’t even think about it. My primary gig is customer service, also shared responsibility for media strategy and speaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

What made you start Craigslist Foundation?
Felt right as another way to give back to the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which of your endeavors gives you the most satisfaction?
Nothing specific, just a sense that we’re helping out lots of people.
<\/span>
How would you rate the importance of doing things to give back in the big picture of doing business?
High priority.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you most grateful for?
People can see what we’re really about.<\/span><\/p>\n

How would you rate your success?
I don’t; there’s always more to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

What lessons did you learn on the road from your hobby to having such as a successful business that helped you grow as a person?
Trust people in general, but listen to my intuition.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u00b9s more important when making a business decision\u2039improving CL as a viable moneymaking business or staying true to your values and the needs of those who use it?
We don’t think about the first, we just follow through with our values.
How do you feel knowing that you\u00b9ve created a huge community that so many people value and were chosen as one of Time magazine\u2019s people who shape our lives? It’s flattering, but there’s more work to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your best advice to someone who says, \u201cMy goal is to be successful.\u201d
Follow through with basic values, and remember to provide good customer service.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you enjoyed my post, please leave a comment and\/or click on the bookmark and write a short review at some of the sites, especially Stumbleupon and Digg. Thanks!

\"AddThis<\/a> var addthis_pub = ‘wryter’;
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first interview of my Embracing SUCCESS series I have Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist, a site that\u2019s made life easier for millions of people. Every Wednesday I\u2019ll interview someone who\u2019s become successful by following his or her passions. I find Craig inspiring. He\u2019s so down-to-earth and caring about the services he offers, as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embracing-success-series"],"yoast_head":"\nInterview with Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview with Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the first interview of my Embracing SUCCESS series I have Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist, a site that\u2019s made life easier for millions of people. Every Wednesday I\u2019ll interview someone who\u2019s become successful by following his or her passions. I find Craig inspiring. He\u2019s so down-to-earth and caring about the services he offers, as…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-04-02T19:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R_QbyIIbcuI\/AAAAAAAAARk\/7ZDj7OmXEOk\/s200\/craig_newmark.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Daylle Deanna Schwartz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Interview with Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Interview with Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","og_description":"For the first interview of my Embracing SUCCESS series I have Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist, a site that\u2019s made life easier for millions of people. Every Wednesday I\u2019ll interview someone who\u2019s become successful by following his or her passions. I find Craig inspiring. He\u2019s so down-to-earth and caring about the services he offers, as…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html","og_site_name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","article_published_time":"2008-04-02T19:35:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R_QbyIIbcuI\/AAAAAAAAARk\/7ZDj7OmXEOk\/s200\/craig_newmark.jpg"}],"author":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html","name":"Interview with Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R_QbyIIbcuI\/AAAAAAAAARk\/7ZDj7OmXEOk\/s200\/craig_newmark.jpg","datePublished":"2008-04-02T19:35:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-04-02T19:35:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/4250884f68a588907744baa491f9df35"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R_QbyIIbcuI\/AAAAAAAAARk\/7ZDj7OmXEOk\/s200\/craig_newmark.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_W3h59OgJIAA\/R_QbyIIbcuI\/AAAAAAAAARk\/7ZDj7OmXEOk\/s200\/craig_newmark.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2008\/04\/interview-with-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Interview with Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/","name":"Lessons from a Recovering Doormat","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Daylle Deanna Schwartz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/4250884f68a588907744baa491f9df35","name":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/83b\/83ba6e1423377712fe408a5fab971bfax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/83b\/83ba6e1423377712fe408a5fab971bfax96.jpg","caption":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz"},"description":"Daylle Deanna Schwartz is a speaker, self-empowerment counselor, best-selling author of 15 books, including Nice Girls Can Finish First (McGraw-Hill), All Men Are Jerks Until Proven Otherwise and founder of The Self-Love Movement\u2122 where she's giving away her 13th book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways, a She's appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Howard Stern, and Good Morning America and has been quoted in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Marie Claire, and Men\u00b9s Health. After being a consummate People Pleaser who felt unworthy of getting her own needs met for many years, Daylle found a path of self-love that enabled her to build her self-esteem and reinvent herself into a dual career. She learned to get taken seriously without being overtly assertive when she became one of the first women to start an independent record label (on a dare!) and learned to play ball nicely and successfully in an industry dominated by men. To help independent musicians empower themselves, Daylle writes music business books for Billboard\/Random House, including the very popular Start & Run Your Own Record Labe and I Don't Need a Record Deal! Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}