Tweet

“I Lived the Dilbert Life”: The Early Years of Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark

Article Overview: “I didn’t have a clue, just did what felt right.”

“I Lived the Dilbert Life”: The Early Years of Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark

"I didn't have a clue, just did what felt right." He may not have had had a clue, but Craig Newmark struck gold with his simple online listing of local jobs, apartments, events, and more. Despite having started off with no business plan, the centralized network of websites that offers communities free classifieds and discussion forums that Newmark created in Craigslist has today become one of the top ten sites on the Internet around the world.

Newmark was born on December 6, 1952 in Morristown, New Jersey. His father, a salesman who peddled everything from food to insurance, died of lung cancer shortly after Newmark's bar mitzvah. His mother worked as a bookkeeper and struggled to make ends meet after her husband passed away. "We weren't poor," recalls Newmark, "but not incredibly far from there."

Newmark went to Morristown High School, where he became co-captain of the debate team, and also an active member of the forensics club. He also started his own club, which met regularly to play the game Go. After graduating in 1971, Newmark enrolled in Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he earned both his bachelor's and master's degree in computer science. His master's thesis was entitled, "Fundamental Models of Computer Systems and their Relationship to Information Security."

A few years later, Newmark landed a job at IBM in Florida, working in what he calls "Advanced technology." Despite his professional successes, however, Newmark struggled personally. He enrolled in ballet and jazz dance classes in order to meet women only to wind up in the hospital with a hernia. "I remember realizing that it wasn't everyone else who had a communication problem," he recalls. "It had to be me. I miss what other people would find obvious...I lived the Dilbert life."

Dilbert though he might have been, Newmark continued to move up the ranks professionally. In 1993, he landed a job with Charles Schwab in San Francisco, where he moved to work as a Systems Security Architect. "I've been a San Franciscan all my life," he now says, "although I only moved here in mid '93."

Two years later, and over the following four years, Newmark began working as an independent consultant, taking on contracts with Bank of America, Xircom, Sun Microsystems and more. Then, after several years of observing people on the Internet and how they made use of such tools as Usenet to help one another out, Newmark decided to begin his own email service.

"I decided that I would start sending people notices about cool events, usually ones that involved arts and technology," he recalls. "And from there, via word of mouth, the news of the list spread."

Soon, people were writing to Newmark to ask if they could subscribe to his list. "People wanted to be added," he says. "People wanted more stuff like jobs or stuff to sell posted there. And then I said ‘How ‘bout apartments?' and it just grew like that. People wanted more."

Related Articles
  De-Classifying Craigslist: How Newmark Took the Site to the Top
  Lesson #1: “There’s no genius behind it. It’s persistence and listening to people.”
  Creating the World’s Most Popular List: Craigslist is Born
  Lesson #2: “Getting out of the way is really important”
  Lesson #3: When we see something that could be done better, we do it

Article Tags: bar mitzvah, bookkeeper, case western reserve, case western reserve university, centralized network, charles schwab, co captain, communication problem, craig newmark, debate team, dilbert, forensics club, fundamental models, hernia, jazz dance classes, lung cancer, morristown high school, morristown new jersey, professional successes, western reserve university



Related Forum Posts
Re: New Famous Entrepreneur - Craig Newmark - Craigslist has got both positive and negative feedbacks although I admit I've used Craigslist as also one of my good references for finding listings, jobs, etc that'll benefit my business. Well, Craig has done a great job setting up this website and it was the people around who makes the bad impressions. I hope that won't hurt the whole Craigslist reputation though.
Re: Charge what you're worth - [quote="Tami Szabo":292ze3jd]People will pay you what you ask. Very few will ever up the price. You are the one who decided what you are worth. The key is that we believe our services are worth the price we are asking.[/quote:292ze3jd] Hi Tami, You're absolutely right. In "Think and Grow Rich", Jessie B. Rittenhouse says "For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial's hire Only to learn, dismayed , That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid" (Napoleon Hill 35). I think the same can be said when setting prices on eBay or Craigslist, especially when people are trying to haggle you.
Dilbert on Business - Be funny to have Dilbert Comics coming in through an RSS feed into a post...
Re: Craigslist/Kijiji Sales - From my understanding, Craigslist is known as more of a place to buy/sell and find deals on products, rather than services. Personally, I would never buy a service from a seller on Craigslist (eg. a tutor, tennis instructor, etc) because there's nothing to measure credibility.
Entrepreneurs to profile - Here are my suggestions: Howard Schultz, Founder of Starbucks Jason Jiang, Founder of Focus Media


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

10 Reasons Your SBA Loan May Be Declined

What should your free giveaway be?

Fear Factors in Small Business: Sales & Marketing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.