Thursday, June 12, 2008

Craig Newmark "Fireside Chat," from TieCon East


Last month, I had the chance to interview Craigslist founder Craig Newmark in front of a great big audience at the annual TieCon East entrepreneurship conference.

Craig was hugely entertaining -- he's a witty, code-writin' blend of Woody Allen, Oscar Wilde, and Groucho Marx.

Here's a podcast (in mp3 form) of the event, just posted to Boston.com.

We talk about:

    - Craig's pre-Craigslist career
    - How any why he started Craigslist
    - His shortcomings as a manager, and hiring Jim Buckmaster to be CEO of Craigslist
    - Whether he posts things on Craigslist
    - How Craigslist's unique culture spread around the globe
    - Why the company doesn't try to make more money from the site
    - What he does as a "customer service rep"
    - Craigslist's tempestuous relationship with eBay, which owns 28 percent of the company
    - Craig's views on the future of journalism
    - Whether he gets a newspaper at home
    - How he answers his e-mail so quickly
    - Politics (he's an Obama man)
    - His future


(Update #1: TIE has just put up a short video clip from the conversation.)

(Update #2: Here's my Sunday Globe column on Newmark and the growth of Craigslist.)

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Monday, May 19, 2008

Interviewing Craig Newmark at TieCon East

The nice folks at TIE have invited me to conduct an on-stage interview next Friday with Craig Newmark of Craigslist, at their big annual conclave.

I hope you can make it...and if you want to post some questions here for Craig, I'll consider them for inclusion in our chat.

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