Craigslist.org Founder and Chairman, Craig Newmark

www.craigslist.org

craig@craigslist.org

Business Type:Media

2005 Revenue:$15 million

No. of Employees:24

Computer programmer Craig Newmark originally started Craigslist.org in 1995 as a way to keep his circle of friends up to date on the latest happenings in the San Francisco social scene. The site has grown astronomically ever since: Each month, more than 13 million unique visitors log on to view 10 million postings for everything from job ads to apartment listings to yard sale advertisements in more than 300 cities around the world.

"I was first exposed to the Internet in 1994 when I was a systems architect working at Charles Schwab. That's when I realized that this was how we were going to do business someday. I loved the fact that people were helping each other out by posting to these things called newsgroups.

"I started my own simple listserv in 1995 to tell a group of 10 or 12 of my friends about the arts and cultural events happening at the Anon Salon or Joe's Digital Diner, where people gathered once a month to learn about new tech products. Then one guy asked if he could post something for sale on the site while another wanted to try to find an apartment. That set the pattern for the site. I listened to people, figured out how to do what they wanted, and then did it.

"Word about the site kept spreading. People were calling it 'Craig's list' before it had a name. I was going to name it SF Events, but people told me to keep it personal and quirky. I decided the name fit because when someone abuses the site by posting something abusive or illegal, I still take it personally and I go after him or her.

"A real turning point for the site came in 1997 after we hit 1 million page views a month. Microsoft offered to run some banner ads on the site. I thought long and hard about it, but at the time I didn't need the money because I was on overpaid contract programmer. I thought ads were stupid and would just slow the site down.

"We first started charging for job postings in 1998. It was a painful decision. I was really worried about the spirit of the site. That's why we still only charge in just a few cities for jobs and apartment listings.

"After a few years of trial and error, I decided to make the site into a real company in 1999. I had been relying on volunteers to update the site, but they just weren't working out. A year later I brought on Jim Buckmaster as CEO because I'm a terrible manager. Now I'm just a glamorous figurehead who handles customer service.

"We now have 24 employees, which works out well for us because we want to continue to stay small even as we get more traffic. We want to continue to provide tools to the people who use the site so that they can make things happen. Sometimes we think about redesigning the site's interface, but the only people that care about redesigning are designers.

"I still do actually use the site myself. I sold my last car on it. I also like to buy small electronics components, but I usually don't get around to selling anything because I'm burned out after a long day on the phones talking to customers."