Thread by @chrishlad

I found a business with 50 employees, 20 billion page views a month and that did $1 billion in sales in 2018.

They never raised money but I guarantee you have bought a coffee table or found your next job on the site.

Here is the story and 5 lessons worth learning👇

Craig Newmark describes himself as "nerd patient zero".

And in 1995 he is 42 years old and moves to San Francisco to work at Charles Schwab.

But like anyone in a new city, he's lonely.

So what does he do?

Creates an email distribution list with 10 people.

The goal?

Feature fun local events in San Francisco.

The first event takes place at Joe's Digital Diner.

People show up, eat spaghetti and meatballs and talk about the using new multimedia tech.

Craig posts more events.

And something weird happens.

People start begging to be added to the email list.

So the list grows to 250 people.

By 1996 he buys and builds craigslist(dot)org.

By 1997 Craigslist hit 1 million page views a month.

People start asking him,

"Hey, can we put this job on there?" or

"Can you post this thing I want to sell?"

Craigslist turns from an event site to selling Classified Ads.

If you're a Zoomer like me, classified ads mean people or businesses pay Craigslist to:

• List cars for sale
• Advertise job openings
• List apartments for sale

and more!

So Craig quits his job in 1998 and hires a team.

In 2007, they hit $50 million in sales.

Today, Craigslist is in over 700 cities and 70 countries.

They have

• 25 million+ classified ads
• 1.5 million+ job postings

Here's how the did it👇

1) Forget the Fancy

Craigslist may have the ugliest website on the internet.

Why almost no changes in 25 yrs?

"People told us they don't want fancy. They want simple, straightforward and fast."

Whenever you think you need a fancy site, remember this hit a billion in sales:

2) Chief Customer Service Rep

Craig obsessed over customer service because the community became the heartbeat of the business.

What do our people want?

How can we make it super simple to get?

Bonus: his linkedin says it all

3) Kill Them with Freeness

As craigslist grew, businesses bombarded Craig asking to advertise.

But he realized that banner ads and pop ups kill user experience.

So they made it free for users with no ads.

Only pay to list certain items.

Pass the cost to those making money.

4) Cheapness is a Virtue

In the early days, the Craigslist office contract stated the landlord paid for toilet paper.

So Craig refused to buy toilet paper.

He didn't care if it was crazy.

In a world full of fundraising and flash, this matters even more.

h/t @thesamparr

5) Fire Yourself

Craig knows he "kinda sucks" at managing people.

So in 2000, he hires Jim Buckmaster after seeing him post his resume on Craigslist.

Too often, we let our egos win.

But if Craig never fired himself, they never becomes a big business.

Now, Craigslist has had a tough last few years.

Facebook Marketplace, Airbnb and others are taking market share.

But the crazy part is that isn't the focus:

"Financial metrics aren't the focus; they're a pleasant side effect if we manage to do a good job by our users."

"We look at the number of thank-you notes from users who have found their entire lives on our site - from spouse to house, job, furnishings, cat, dog, friends and a social life."
-- Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist

If you picked up a new insight, retweet the 1st tweet to share with a friend!

https://twitter.com/chrishlad/status/1495437731391967235?s=20&t=XJIyO4bfY3cADFNkQ6_ZBA

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