Celebrating the spirit of Entrepreneurship :: Craigslist

I was recently very surprised to learn about the details of how Craigslist, a household name in California for online classifieds, was founded. Craigslist was founded by its supercool and self proclaimed shy and nerd founder Craig Newmark in the 1990s as a newsletter. Later the newsletter evolved into a board and finally into its present form with 1 B hits per day. Craigslist is not only international now but is also the most well known and revered company in the space.

Did you ever imagine the economics of a company that allows anyone to post a classified online without any fee and without any banner or search adverstising? How does it sustain itself? The only revenue Craigslist makes is through the paid job ads posted by companies, which is turn is used to support the staff of 14 at Craigslist. 14 yes thats it!

More facts about Craigslist can be read at their website. The article that initally exposed me to this inspiring revelation about Craig, his list and his decision to keep Craigslist a non-commercial organization can be found at the Herald Tribune. Ebay has now invested in Craigslist which had so far been aloof to any investors ready to grab a piece of the cake. Both the management at Craigslist and Ebay have explained that this is not a strategic investment and that Ebay will not interfere in the workings of Craigslist. This is what Craig Newmark had to say when asked about the equity sold to Ebay.

Anyways, coming back to the reason why I started righting about Craig. Well, in the true spirit of entrepreneurship I found Craig's story very inspiring. To be the founder of such a well established website and to avoid the temptation of selling out to become a multi-millionaire (in times where sell out has made American entrepreneurs the youngest and richest) just for the sheer pleasure of maintaining the company the way it was thought of right from the beginning, a board to help people online is a great achievement in itself and speaks volumes about the person. Kudos to you Craig!