The Craigslist Secret
June 6th, 2007 Posted in Advertising/Marketing
Curious about Craigslist’s success? Then check out this podcast that founder Craig Newmark did with David Weinberger. Quote of the podcast from Newmark: “Everything on the site is based on user feedback. Frankly, I have no vision whatsoever.” At the mesh conference last week, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster dropped a few mind-blowing facts:
1. The site is serving up seven billion pageviews a month from 200 servers
2. All 24 employees work at a Victorian house in San Francisco
3. The company has never had a tech quit in 12 years
4. Craigslist never holds meetings.
Technorati Tags: Craigslist
June 7th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Pretty wild stuff, with such a simple concept I suppose you wouldn’t neat to adhere to a traditional corporate structure! Seven billion pageviews is just ridiculous.. think of how much money they could be making..
June 8th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I guess it’s all about the corporate culture.
June 8th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
no meetings would be enough for me to work there
June 8th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
interesting….
June 8th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
would _you_ want to be the tech known to have quit (and therefore lost millions) before craigslist went public?
No wonder that they won’t quit.
June 8th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I would have never found or used craigslist if it wasn’t for listpic.com I have sold and bought things because of them. If everything WAS based on userfeedback then they would have never banned listpic.com. I CANNOT believe that taking away a website that lets you browse thru a hundred pics of ads at once is progress or in their best intrest. I have NO desire to READ each ad when I can SEE them all. After all this IS 2007 not 1987. Until they unblock listpic.com I have NO time or use for craiglist.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
How old is Craigslist?
June 8th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
It’s refreshing to see that there is still someone who hasn’t sold out and
let greed dictate every decision they make. Life is not about trying to
accumulate as much money as possible despite what capitalist society
want you to believe.
June 8th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
[...] The Craigslist Secret. “3. The company has never had a tech quit in 12 years. 4. Craigslist never holds meetings.” I believe that’s what those in the business call a “causal relationship”. [...]
June 8th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Does E-Bay still have a 25% stake in CL?
June 8th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Very cool, it’s quite an aspiration and actually very hard to keep the same community focus
June 8th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
That’s not quite true. One of my friends works there, J. He quit his job as one of the programmers then came back about 6 months or a year later.
June 9th, 2007 at 1:29 am
He never answers this question… how does CL make money?
June 9th, 2007 at 2:23 am
[...] Mark Evans - The Craigslist Secret No meetings? I need to move to that office. (tags: craigslist management entrepreneurship success secrets) [...]
June 9th, 2007 at 2:42 am
[...] Un mix notevole di elementi a cui se ne aggiungono altri altrettanto interessanti dal blog di Mark Evans: [...]
June 9th, 2007 at 3:42 am
how in the hell do they make any money? I have never seen an ad or a request for donation on craigslist.com ever. stange
June 9th, 2007 at 3:42 am
[...] June 9th, 2007 [link][more] [...]
June 9th, 2007 at 8:31 am
I first heard of craigslist in 1996. Even met Craig when he worked at Charles Schwab in San Francisco. Quiet guy. I believe he started it in late 1995, shortly after Netscape went public and Windows 95 came out in August 1995. At the time, it was how high-tech employees got work in the Bay area. My, how it has changed!
June 9th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
[...] —Mark Evans - The Craigslist Secret [...]
June 9th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Gadrey: Craigslist charges to list job postings in San Francisco, Los Angeles and NYC. It also charges brokers a fee for apartment listings in NYC.
WillyPete: Yes, eBay owns 25% of Craigslist. eBay purchased the stake from one of Craiglist’s early employees, who was given the shares.
June 10th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
[...] Everything on the site is based on user feedback. Frankly, I have no vision whatsoever. (via http://del.icio.us/popular) (tags: craigslist web design) [...]
June 10th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
[...] 10th, 2007 in Links The Craig’sList secret sauce (which is mostly, don’t [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
CL makes $$ off of charging landlords and employers for listing properties in 3 major metro areas and, yes, eBay still has a quarter of the company. The book “Founders at Work” has a great summary of their story. I wrote up a digest of it here->
http://www.grid7.com/archives/126_faw-18-craig-newmark-of-craigslist.html
sean
June 15th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
[...] across this post about craigslist which points out some interesting facts. Craig Newark: “Everything on the [...]
June 18th, 2007 at 6:08 am
[...] Craigslist never holds meetings. All 24 employees work at a Victorian house in San Francisco. The company has never had a tech quit in 12 years. [podcast] [...]
June 22nd, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Starting this website was one of the best things to happen on the net. If you have a product to sell it will sell on Craigslist!
June 23rd, 2007 at 1:13 pm
[...] an interview with Craig Newmark earlier this month. Some interesting things about craigslist (according to their CEO Jim [...]
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
[...] tikirobot, an interesting interview with Craig Newmark. My favorite newly-learned fact: Craigslist never holds [...]
July 21st, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I know that one day Craigslist may go public, and when that happens they will probably cash out!
October 3rd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
[...] their laid-back approach to revenue growth and competition, as CNET wrote about last year? Is it a complete lack of vision and a pliability that puts users in control? Or perhaps it has something to do with Buckmaster’s “no-meetings” management [...]
April 9th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Yeah I bet they work really hard too. lol
July 21st, 2008 at 4:17 pm
[...] This interview with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark describes the relationship between the Craigslist site and its users. I’ll leave you to determine its relevance to this post. Via Mark Evans Blog. [...]