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eCommerce - Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Craigslist' Craig Was Too Odd To Land A Job

Another trip down memory lane...Around 2000, we knew of a startup that needed a community manager. Craigslist's Craig applied but didn't get the job because we understood the head of engineering thought he was too weird and had anti-capitalist ideas. Apparently no company would hire Craig. And this was a time when SF recruiters achieved the 7th level of nirvana when they landed someone who could code.

Although at the time Craigslist was an underground SF phenomenon, we guess that if Craig had taken the job that perhaps Craigslist would have slid off into obscurity. Of course, this startup that passed on Craig is now out of business while Craiglist is a top 10 Internet property. It reminds us that sticking to it is the best business model on the Net and that people who do not interview well should not be taken lightly.

BusinessWeek interview's Craig's right hand man Jim Buckmaster to get an update on the business:
+ Serves classified ads to 450 cities.
+ The site gets more 750K job listings a month
+ Users self-publish about 14M new classifieds a month
+ Estimates are that its saw $25M in revenues last year without ads.
+ It has only 24 employees.
+ The company has no meetings. "People can work from wherever they are whenever they want."
+ Craigslist had nobody in sales and marketing.

Read - Craigslist's Ongoing Success Story (Businessweek)