Squarespace

Squarespace
Type of business Private
Type of site
 SaaS-based hosting platform
Headquarters New York, NY
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Anthony Casalena
CEO Anthony Casalena
Industry Internet
Products
Services
Employees 580 (as of October 2016)[1]
Slogan(s) Build it Beautiful
Website www.squarespace.com
Alexa rank Increase 674 (As of 10 October 2016)[2]
Advertising Yes.
Registration Required; subscription needed for certain features.
Launched January 2004 (2004-01)

Squarespace is a software as a service-based content management system-integrated website builder, blogging platform, hosting service, commerce platform, and domain name registrar. The system allows individuals and businesses to create and maintain websites, blogs, and online stores.[3] The services are only available bundled; they are not available separately. Hosting by Squarespace is mandatory: individuals and businesses cannot host their own Squarespace sites.

Since launching in 2004, Squarespace has grown to a team of 580 employees,[1] and millions of users have created websites on the Squarespace platform.[1]

History

Squarespace was founded in 2003 and launched in January 2004 by Anthony Casalena while he studied at the University of Maryland,[1][4] using a $30,000 investment from his father. He created the initial software behind the company after trying and disliking other personal web page platforms.[5] Squarespace was founded to create an all-in-one web publishing solution. On November 17, 2014, Squarespace announced that it acquired Brace.io, a website creation startup powered by cloud tools like Dropbox and Amazon Web Services. The price of the acquisition was not released.[6]

Headquartered in New York City, the company also has offices in Portland, Oregon, and Dublin, Ireland.[4][7] Of the company's 560–570 employees, 149 work at the Portland office, located in the Spalding Building.[7]

In 2016, Squarespace was ranked #8 on the Forbes Cloud 100 list.[8]

Industry competitors

Squarespace's primary competitors in the website publishing industry include WordPress,[9] Weebly, Wix.com,[9] GoDaddy,[9] amongst others. Some of these competitors make services such as templates, hosting and domain registration available separately or in partial bundles.[10]

The exact number of Squarespace users is not disclosed, although Casalena estimated in 2014 that Squarespace signs up about 1,000 new customers a day.[11]

Funding

Squarespace is funded by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The company raised $38.5 million in its Series A round of funding in July, 2010.[12] As part of the financing deal, Squarespace formed a board of directors, to add its three charter members: Jonathan Klein, Andrew Braccia and Dominique Vidal. Casalena remains Squarespace's largest shareholder.[13]

Squarespace raised another $40 million in Series B funding from General Atlantic in April 2014.[14][15] This is a minority investment. Anton Levy, Managing Director of General Atlantic, will join the Squarespace board of directors.[14]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "About Squarespace". Squarespace. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Squarespace.com Site Info". Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  3. ↑ Squarespace 6 For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. 2013. ISBN 978-1-118-57543-7. 360 pages.
  4. 1 2 Entis, Laura (June 22, 2015). "How the Founder of Squarespace Mastered the Tricky Role of CEO". Entrepreneur. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". Techcrunch. 2010-07-13. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  6. ↑ Napier, Lopez November 17, 2014 TheNextWeb. "Squarespace acquires Brace.io to bolster its developer tools"
  7. 1 2 Rogoway, Mike (August 24, 2016) [online date August 22]. "Rounded individuals fit easily into this Squarespace". The Oregonian. Portland, Oregon. pp. B13, B15. Retrieved 2016-08-27.
  8. ↑ "Forbes Cloud 100". Forbes. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 Novellino, Teresa (April 15, 2016). "Squarespace gets into domain space, takes on "antiquated" GoDaddy and other rivals". New York Business Journal. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Top Website Builders Reviewed: WIX vs Squarespace vs WordPress vs Shopify vs Weebly". Websitebuilders.net. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  11. ↑ Pofeldt, Elaine. "How a dorm blog snared $79 million in VC funding". CNBC. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  12. ↑ Chapman, Lizette (April 15, 2014). "Squarespace Raises $40M as Website-Tools Battle Heats Up". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Index, Accel bet big on Squarespace". Reuters. 2010-07-14. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
  14. 1 2 "Squarespace Takes $40 Million in Growth Equity". BeatBeat.
  15. ↑ "Squarespace Raises $40M in Series B Funding from Global Growth Investor General Atlantic". General Atlantic.
  16. ↑ "50 Best Websites 2012". Time (magazine). 2012-09-18. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  17. ↑ "Best Places to Work 2012". Crain's New York Business. 2012-12-02. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  18. ↑ "America's Most Promising Companies". Forbes. 2013-02-06. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  19. ↑ "Critics' Choice Award for Best Website Builder". CMS Critic.
  20. ↑ "Squarespace Wins Four Webby Awards". Squarespace Blog.
  21. ↑ "50 Best Small and Medium-Size Companies to Work For". Fortune. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  22. ↑ "50 Best Small and Medium-Size Companies to Work For". Fortune. 2015-10-21. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
  23. ↑ "The 2016 Wealthfront Career-Launching Companies List". Crain's New York Business. 2015-10-06. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
  24. ↑ "Best Places to Work 2015". Crain's New York Business. 2015-12-04. Retrieved 2015-12-29.

Further reading

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