Finding an old interview of Pierre Omidyar on Guy Kawasaki’s blog

The story of how eBay got started and its early days has been told over and over again, but to me it's like watching a favorite movie - I always discover something new whenever I see it again.

Recently, I've been in touch with Guy Kawasaki, whose quirky seminar at eBay Live! was a huge hit, filled with pithy advice to entrepreneurs, like "Don't let the bozos grind you down." Guy told me about an old interview he had done with Pierre Omidyar, eBay's Founder, way back in 2000, when the Internet and e-commerce was still being called the "New Economy." The video interview is available on Guy Kawasaki's blog, and makes for very interesting viewing. (You can download it on your hard drive, but bear in mind it's a 45 MB file.)

The video plays in a small window, increasing the impression that you're looking back in time through the reverse end of a telescope. It's almost six years old, but it's amazing how Pierre's vision for a Community-oriented efficient marketplace not only is relevant today, but is more powerful than ever before. Some of Pierre's stories about eBay's early days (such as advertising the site on Usenet groups) are positively quaint, showing how far the Internet has come in a few short years, and how sophisticated it has become today.

It's also amazing to see what a clear vision Pierre had about eBay, right from the get-go. You see it around three and a half minutes into the video. He says something like "My notion for eBay was that it would be a site for the Community, as opposed to the notion that I had a product to sell and so I needed to convince people it was better than other products." It's a philosophy that continues to this day at eBay. Indeed, I don't think eBay's character would be what it is without the focus on our Community.

It's a treat listening to Pierre speak about how he started the site, the famous Pez dispenser story, promoting the site in the early days, early Customer Support (which essentially meant Pierre), how Meg came on board, and many more anecdotes. Enjoy!