In this segment of the My First Million podcast, Sam Parr recounts visiting the original Craigslist office—a modest mixed‑use house in San Francisco’s Sunset district that once housed the company from 1996 to around 2000. He describes the tiny 3‑bedroom space, the low rent split ($500 for his share, $2,000 for his co‑founder), and quirky frugal practices such as a lease clause requiring the landlord to supply toilet paper before rent could be paid. Sam also shares how Craig Newmark presented himself as a customer‑service employee despite being the founder, reflecting a culture of humility. The conversation highlights Craigslist’s surprisingly simple revenue model—charging only for job, apartment, and car listings in select markets—yet generating $500‑600 million annually with a staff of roughly 30, making it one of the most profitable companies worldwide. Sam mentions cold‑emailing Craig and occasional correspondence, underscoring the personal connection to the story.
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When they moved out, they were making something like $500 or $600 million a year in revenue. When we started our company, when I started this company, the first office that I had— did you ever go to that one?
I've been to it. Okay. Oh, is it the Craigslist one?
Craigslist. So the first office I had, we didn't have a lot of money, and I moved— I started, me and Sieva, my friend, we co-leased an office in the inner city Sunset, which is a non-popular neighborhood in San Francisco, but it's lovely.
And it just looked like an apartment.
It was a house that they— that was zoned mixed-use. And when we went to visit it, there was a sign that said Craigslist 1996 to, uh, 2000 and, uh, whenever we moved in, '15 or '16 or '17, I forget. Um, my portion of the rent was $500, which was a lot of money at the time. And, uh, because we had just started business, we only were making $30 grand a month. And we move in and there was a desk still in one of the rooms. And this was like a— it wasn't a shitty apartment, but it kind of was a shitty apartment. Yeah. It was a 3-bedroom apartment, less than 1,000 square feet. And I move in and Craig from Craigslist, Craig Newark, he actually left his desk there. And his desk was a kitchen table. That was his desk. But it was too heavy to move, and so he just kept it there. So that's what I used. And the landlord, I came in, his name was Emmanuel, I believe. I believe. He came in and I was like, "Hey, so Craigslist was here?" He's like, "Yeah, Craig started the— he lived down the street in Cole Valley. He started the company here from '96 up until recently." I go, "Oh, what was that like?" He's like, "Yeah, they were kind of like little celebrities in the neighborhood. Everyone knew about them." And at the time when they moved out, they were making something like $500 or $600 million a year in revenue. And this whole apartment, my half of the rent was $500. Sienna's was like $2,000. So we paid $2,500. And it could only seat at most 12 people probably. And that was the tiny— that was the Craigslist team. And I go, well, what were they like? He's like, well, they were cool. Craig told everyone, if you— if he introduced— like, if I talked to me and I'd be like, what's your job here? He wouldn't say he owns it, but that he's the founder. He would say, I do customer service for Craigslist. Nice. And they were so— he said they were so cheap and frugal that in the lease it said something like Emmanuel had to give them toilet paper each month. And everyone Once in a while he would forget or not bring it on time and they wouldn't pay the rent until they got the toilet paper.
Yeah, if you just close your eyes and imagine the Craigslist website and then start to imagine an apartment or a house, it looked like that. It looked like the UI of the site.
Yeah, and if you Google Craigslist office, you'll see photos of it. They had a big sign on it. It was great.
And did you ever meet him?
Yeah, so I cold emailed him, Craig, and we talked back and forth. We talked on the phone a little bit and I was like, "Hey, can you come and take a picture with me at the office?" And he never made it over, but we did talk. We correspond every once in a while. It was awesome. And a lot of people don't know how Craigslist makes money. They make money only from jobs, apartments, and cars, all in certain markets.
Yeah.
And they make—
everything else free.
They make like $500 or $600 million a year that way. And they've never bought a company. They only employ at this point probably 30 people. So they just must— it must be one of the most profitable companies in the world.
