Craig Newmark, Craigslist Founder

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craigs listCraig Newmark

created one o the most

popular websites on earth.

Now hes on a mission

to fgure out what it all means.

By Darren Gluckman

raig Newmarkwho

has brushed shoul-

ders with Steve Jobs and Leonard

Cohen, and discussed the video

game Angry Birds with Mad

Men star Jon Hammis not a

people person. Te morning we

speak, he has risen early to en-

sure that the dog ood he keeps

in his home is o the oor. A

contractor is coming, with a big

chocolate lab who knows where

Craig keeps the canine chow, and

Craigwho doesnt have a dog

himseldoesnt want the pooch

tearing into it and making a mess

o things. Why would a non-dog

owner keep dog ood?

My deal is that the neighbor-

hood dogs know that I carry

treats or them, he explains. And

dogs arent the only beneciaries

o his largesse. I live on the edge

o a orested area in town. I have

bird eeders up, birdbaths. Ive

done a lot o bird photography. I

do most o my work at home, so

they come around, and its kind

o un watching the birds and

squirrels. Its tting, perhaps,

that someone who has described

himsel as socially inept and a

hardwired nerd with symptoms

that Im told border on Aspergers

syndrome communes so avidly

with animals. People, though, are

C

126 lifestyles magazine new year 2012


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ProfileCraig Newmark

127lifestyles magazinenew year 2012Photo by StePhanie CanCiello

another story. He can simulate social skills, he says. I can

do that or an hour, maybe two, but thats tops.

So, there may be some irony in the act that Craig (it

seems wrong to reer to such an accomplished eponymist

as Newmark), with his aversion to interpersonal con-

nection, has over 120,000 riends on Facebook and is the

ounder o a wildly successul business whose mission and

operational essence is ostering human connectionssocial,

commercial, and otherwise. Tat business, craigslist.org,

generates over 20 billion (thats right, billion) page views

per month and is the seventh-most-visited English lan-

guage website in the world. Not bad or someone with a

limited social skill set.

In act, this deciencyand the challenges it posed

early onmay lie at the root o his success. In a conversa-

tion intended to promote his new philanthropic venture,craigconnects.org, Craig explains that his driving ethos

was born o an adolescent sense o social exclusion. In

high school, I elt let out, disenranchised. He sought sol-

ace in his identity as a uniormed nerd. I really did wear a

plastic pocket protector, he insists, along with thick black

glasses. And at two points when the glasses had broken, I

taped them together while waiting or new rames. So this

is not an exaggeration in any manner.

Ater school, instead o hanging out with other kids, he

would go home and read science ction and eat choco-late chip cookies with milk. Te plastic pocket protec-

tor wasnt just protecting against leaks, it was a deense

against loneliness, a retreat into an identity that made

sense o isolation. I remember what that elt like, he says,

and that motivates me to be as inclusive as possible.

Inclusiveness is at the core o craigslists suite o local,

user-driven, ad-ree services, most o which are without

charge, and through which you may og your used 17' ca-

noe (NO SEAWORHY), seek an incense-tolerant veg-

an roommate or your split-level one-and-a-hal-bedroom

subterranean, or oer your grease monkey services to

despondent lemon drivers. Community listings include

classes in how to get your ex back, and discussion boards

permitting spirited debates on atheism, haikus, and what

constitutes the proper equipment or an emergency wed-

ding kit.

Notwithstanding the .org, and the companys proessed

pride in its non-commercial nature, public service mis-

sion, and non-corporate culture, it is, in act, a corpora-

tion and makes a sizeable prot, though arguably much

less than i it allowed advertising. Its revenues, chiey de-

rived rom charges or job listings and real estate postings

in certain markets, are estimated to be in the range o $100

million annually.

Yet or all its eel-goodness, the business has aced criti-

cism. It has been accused o imperiling the existence o lo-

cal newspapers, which rely on local classied ads or the

bulk o their revenue. Craig counters that, in any event,

many o the ree listings on craigslist would never have

been put out in local papers in the rst place, given the

cost and the process involved in doing so. O course, the

newspaper business in general has been hard-hit by the

Internet, and it would be churlish to assign much blame

to craigslist or the challenges aced by traditional print

media. And the company received adverse attention in

2009 ater an American medical student, Philip Marko,

was alleged to have robbed several women and killed one

o them, ater arranging or escort or erotic services

through craigslist. In the short-lived media hailstorm that

ollowed, the company resisted pressures to remove or

sanitize its Casual Encounters section.

Craig ounded the business in 1995, developing it out o


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129lifestyles magazinenew year 2012Photo by Jeff Chiu/aP Photo

an inormal e-mail list o regular goings-on in San Francis-

co, where he still lives, and where he then worked or IBM.

But despite being the ounder and chairman o craigslists

board, he has no day-to-day management role. Instead

and with a startling degree o humility and sel-awareness,

especially or a high-achieving tech-rm ounderhis role

within craigslist (apart rom occasional board-related du-

ties) is that o a plain ol customer service rep, dealing with

quotidian user issues as they arise and executing search-

and-destroy missions targeting scammers and spammers.

He reports not to the CEO but to the manager o customer

service.

Craig appointed the current CEO, Jim Buckmaster, in

2000, because people helped me understand that my

management skills are limited, which is to say I learned

that as a manager, I suck. I didnt have the patience or de-tail. Regarding interviewing new people, thats an intense-

ly social activity and I just wasnt good at it. I am a really

good customer service rep, so thats what I do.

But Craig isnt here to discuss craigslist, which, with local

iterations on every continent save Antarctica, doesnt need

talking up. His publicist chimes in to nudge us o craigslist

and on to craigconnects, Craigs

relatively new online venture aimed

squarely at social philanthropy. Its

sloganConnecting the world orthe common goodexpresses its

purpose clearly enough, but how

it intends to achieve global philan-

thropic connectivity remains un-

clear, perhaps even to Craig. In the

long range, lets say over 20 years, Id

like to gure out how to get every-

one in the world connected or ev-

eryones individual idea o what the

common good is.

In the meantime, the organiza-

tions eatured on the site include

those that evaluate the account-

ability and nancial transparency

o nonprots, encourage micro-

nance loans or those without ac-

cess to traditional banking systems,

promote open government initia-

tives, and support military amilies

and veterans.

Tis last cause resonates on an in-

timate level. His ather served in the Pacic in World War

II. He was a sergeant with a specialty in blowing things

up. Stateside, in Morristown, New Jersey, where Craig was

raised, his ather sold insurance and meat (not simulta-

neously). He was a heavy smoker who died o lung cancer

when Craig was 13. I dont have a good grip on how that

aected me, he says, though his commitment to veterans

aairs and his support or military amilies may be a prod-

uct o that boyhood trauma.

Some details about a tech titans tech:

BlackBerry or iPhone? Neither: I use Android-style

phones. Its open. I like the use o alternative browsers and

keyboards. Im using a Motorola Droid Bionic. But tonight

the Google Nexus Prime will be announced, and I have a

eeling Ill do what I can to get one o those. What about

your desktop setup? A MacBook Air 11-inch. Its hookedup to a big screen. But the deal is when Im on the road, I

want the smallest notebook I can carry. I dont do heavy-

duty stu on my desk, so I dont need a ancy system.

Hes an icon, but doesnt hobnob with his ellows.

I dont really hang out with the big guys, he says. Espe-

cially given my work in customer service, I tend to identiy

C CeO J Buck h nk.


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131lifestyles magazinenew year 2012

very strongly with the grassroots, with people who never

get a break, who dont have any voice. Every day I hear

rom people who only manage to get through the day by

using our ree section, or maybe they put ood on the table

with our barter section. I did meet Steve Jobs once, years

ago. More oten Ive met Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin]

rom Google. And I remember once meeting Je Bezos

rom Amazon. And I learned rom them, in chatting, that

these rich guys arent any happier than anyone else, and

that helped reinorce a lesson that Id absorbed years ear-

lier: You gotta know when enough is enough. So the deal

is, i you get enough money or your uture, maybe enough

to help your riends and amily, then its more satisying to

change the world rather than accumulating more cash.

Indeed, i cashing out were a goal, he couldve done

so many times over, and or hundreds o millions o dol-lars, possibly more, given the reach and notoriety o the

craigslist brand. Mind you, hes not exactly living hand-

to-mouth. At various points, both Google and the private

equity rm Warburg Pincus have been potential investors.

In 2004, and under strict terms that were subsequently

the subject o bitter litigation, eBay acquired a 28 per-

cent stake in craigslist, as a result o which he received a

reported $9.5 millionnot exactly a trivial amount, but a

relatively paltry sum in Silicon Valley terms.

It raises the question: I doing good works, howeverdened, is more meaningul than amassing your own pri-

vate Fort Knox, why not simply cash out and channel that

money to the organizations you support? Why not directly

inuse the organizations you support with some serious

craigslist lucre?

Te deal is that it does people more good to keep the

money that they would have spent, say, on a roommate ad

than or me to take that and then try to give it away. Te

deal isthis phrase is a constantly recurring touchstone

as he speaksthe deal is that theres plenty o money

around now or philanthropic purposes, like at the Gates

Foundation, and theyre nding that its very dicult to

give money away in a way thats eective and sustain-

able. Te lesson there is that the people who would have

spent that money on a roommate ad need it a lot more

than nonprots that might not use it in an eective and

sustainable way. Lets say they would have spent 40 or 100

bucks. Tey can do more good with that money, even or

themselves, than I could do with it. In other words, theres

greater philanthropic eciency in allowing economically

disadvantaged persons ree access to craigslist services

than there is in giving to charitable organizations with the

attendant transaction costs and risks o suboptimal distri-

bution o unds.

But craigconnects does reect his support or NPR and

the Hungton Post, and he has advocated on behal o the

current president (he argues that the press has been much

tougher on Obama than it was on his predecessor), but he

doesnt cop to a liberal bias. I m a libertarian pragmatist,he says. I chat with olks at the Cato Institute. Tats ne

as ar as political philosophy goes, but is there a spiritual

dimension to his work? Despite his Jewish background,

he says hes completely secular. Nevertheless, he admits

to a spiritual guide, albeit one who doesnt claim the role:

Leonard Cohen. I met him once, briey. I told him that I

liked his work and that he was my rabbi. He doesnt recall

the balladeers response.

He does, however, remember his chat with Don Draper.

Tis comes up in a discussion o his avorite televisionshows, which include Te Daily Show, Te Colbert Report,

House, Te Simpsons, 30 Rock, and Hamms Mad Men. I

was at the same party with him and I had seen him inter-

viewed talking about Angry Birds, Craig recalls. So what

did you talk about? Tat the game qualies you to be a

16th-century artillery captain, since its all about eleva-

tions and yardage. Ive completed all levels that are cur-

rently available and Im waiting or the next update.

Craigs lie is largely, but not exclusively, online. Asked

whether he sees any value in being unplugged, or one day

a week, say, or even an hour, he is emphatic. No. Id eel

worse. Id be missing things. Even when I y, I choose

ights with Wi-Fi. When I visit London next month, I ll be

ofine or eight to 10 hours and people will wonder what

happened to me. And yet the day ater this conversation,

he is attending an event or veterans and giving a talk at

the University o San Francisco. When its pointed out that

he leads a airly social lie or somebody who doesnt nec-

essarily preer that kind o interaction, he responds like

the quintessential nerd. Or a 16th-century artillery cap-

tain: Tats what my mission requires.

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Craig Newmark, Craigslist Founder