Livingston: Did you ever think, Boy, we can squeeze those brokers for a little in Font

Generator DataMatrix in Font Livingston: Did you ever think, Boy, we can squeeze those brokers for a little

improve the quality of that stuff. Especially the more legitimate brokers they want that because they feel that will help control the sleazier brokers. And we think that will work OK.

Livingston: Are you having an impact on these sleazy brokers Newmark: It is working. It s a long slog, but these brokers increasingly behave. The deal is that a guy without, let s say, a firm moral compass, if he thinks that other brokers are being sleazy, he feels an implicit moral sanction to be sleazy. Now I m telling guys like that, Hey, it s over. And that s working. So we have brokers who used to be problematic, who are no longer problematic. Livingston: Will you tell me about one of the most frustrating situations with a

all sorts of things, all the bad things we ve talked about, and they would also do things to try to evade our tools which worked, by the way, except I have a volunteer who looks at things. They would post using multiple email addresses, that kind of thing. I just kept blocking them and blocking them, and they got tired of being blocked and they finally approached me and said, Sorry about this. And it s working now.

Livingston: So they didn t just go away; they changed. Newmark: Yes. That is mighty good. It worked very nicely. Livingston: Can you remember anything that surprised you about the early

Newmark: What surprises me, in a way, is how almost universally people are trustworthy and good. There are problems, and sometimes people bicker, which is a pain in the ass, but people are good. No matter what your religious background, we share pretty much the same values. There are some minor differences that we disagree on, but the differences are at the 5 percent level. That s pretty good. Livingston: What about companies wanting to buy you Newmark: We politely say, No. The deal is, you know, eBay got that equity. And we re happy it s eBay since they have a similar moral compass. The person who sold was a former employee selling his equity. Unfortunately, years ago I decided I d give away equity. I would grant it, because that would help me avoid temptation. Normally I can avoid anything but temptation. But he left the company, and he decided to sell in 2004. We are very different from any other startup you ve heard about. That s just the way things happened. It s working out well. Again, a big reason for our success is Jim. Livingston: At what point did you think you d actually be a real company Newmark: In early 99. It s been 7 years. Jim s been running things for about 6. Livingston: I read craigslist used to work out of an old Victorian. Newmark: It s not really a Victorian, I think. It s a very simple home. Oddly

enough, we move into an old Victorian mansion in a not-great location, but that s all we can find. We did not want to move into the financial district. We had to move some place convenient for pretty much everyone to commute to.

Livingston: How do you find your employees Newmark: We advertise on our site. Sometimes someone will know someone. Livingston: What s the most important part of your culture Newmark: The culture of trust. The moral compass. Livingston: And you make sure, when you hire someone, that they have one Newmark: The other people on my team do, yes. Since I ve had such bad luck

Livingston: Is there anything about craigslist that people misunderstand Newmark: People sometimes still think we re a nonprofit, even though we tell

people that we re not. Sometimes people think that we sold part to eBay, and that s a misconception I have to fix now and then.