Craigslist Rules

The management philosophy of Jim Buckmaster
● Listen to what users want. Try to make the site faster and better.
● Hire good people. “We work hard trying to get the right kind of folks. It pays off: they hardly ever leave.”
● No meetings, ever. “I find them stupefying and useless.”
● No management programmes and no MBAs. “I’ve always thought that sort of thing was baloney.”
● Forget the figures. “We are consistently in the black, so if we do better or worse in any given quarter it is absolutely irrelevant.”
● Occasionally, give people “a very gentle nudge”. This can be done over lunch or on the instant messaging boards.
● He doesn’t reply to any of his 100 daily messages, most of which beg Craigslist to do a deal. “I’m not real chatty on e-mail.”
● Put speed over perfection: “Get something out there. Do it, even if it isn’t perfect.”
● “Don’t screw it up by doing things that make people feel worse about their work.”
(From a slightly baffled interview in the FT)