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| Jim Buckmaster |
Adam Lashinsky, of Fortune, treats us to his trademark colorful prose in a story about the two guys behind San Francisco’s Craigslist, which is shaking up the newspaper and classified ads industries.
The two are founder Craig Newmark, and CEO Jim Buckmaster. A snippet:
If Craigslist were run by executives with even the slightest appetite for wealth, it might be a major financial player in online commerce. But Newmark, 53, founded the site as a hobby ten years ago and is determined to keep it simple. “We’re just motivated by the same values we all learn in Sunday school or the equivalent,” he says. “The Golden Rule and that it’s more important to help people.”
Buckmaster, a decade younger and, at six-seven, a foot taller, doesn’t have a problem with that. His casual dress and scruffiness give him a bohemian aura. He is, in fact, a devotee of Noam Chomsky, the MIT linguist better known for his anticapitalist rhetoric. “We think of ourselves as a public service,” says Buckmaster. Sure, the partners want Craigslist to be successful. But Buckmaster is convincing when he says, “We’re not interested in selling our users short in order to try to become insanely wealthy.”
3 Comments
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Hoodia said:
Buckmaster is convincing when he says, “We’re not interested in selling our users short in order to try to become insanely wealthy.” Where have I heard that before? - Hoodia
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Andrew said:
It’s too bad they aren’t interested in making the service actually have some decent tools. If I’m searching for a Porsche Turbo, it would be nice to not view all the ads where people put “Porsche” as a keyword (i.e. throw it on the bottom of the ad), even though they are selling a Civic :-/ - just to name one of the many problems.
I’m surprised no one has built a more powerful, intuitive, and modern version of Craigslist (also free).
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Search Engines Web said:
Now that there is Google Base and Microsoft is launching Freemont - will this so severely cut into Craigslist that it would be forced to become more profit centered.
It is perfectly okay to offer something to the WorLd without caring about becoming rich - ‘less we forget - THE WORLD WIDE WEB was created and nuRtured by many such people - as well as -LINUX!!!
