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Squarespace

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Not to be confused with Square.

Squarespace, Inc.
Headquarters in Manhattan
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
SaaS-based hosting platform
Traded asNYSE: SQSP
Headquarters225 Varick Street
New York City, New York,
United States
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerPermira
Founder(s)Anthony Casalena
CEOAnthony Casalena
IndustryInternet
ProductsWebsite builder and hosting service
RevenueIncrease US$1.01 billion (2023)[1]
Employees1,749 (2023)[1]
URLsquarespace.com
RegistrationRequired; subscription needed for certain features.
LaunchedJanuary 2004; 20 years ago (2004-01)

Squarespace, Inc. is an American website building and hosting company based in New York City.[2] It provides software as a service for website building and hosting, and allows users to use pre-built website templates and drag-and-drop elements to create and modify webpages.

In 2003, Anthony Casalena founded Squarespace as a blog hosting service while attending the University of Maryland, College Park. He was its only employee until 2006 when it reached $1 million in revenue. The company grew from 30 employees in 2010 to 550 by 2015. By 2014, it raised a total of $78.5 million in venture capital; added e-commerce tools, domain name services, and analytics; and replaced its coding backend with drag-and-drop features. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 19, 2021,[3] and was taken private by Permira in October 2024. According to W3Techs, Squarespace is used by 1.9% of the top 10 million websites.[4]

History

[edit]

Casalena began developing Squarespace for his personal use while attending the University of Maryland.[5][6] He started sharing it with friends and family members[5] and participated in a "business incubator" program at the university.[6] In January 2004, he launched Squarespace as do it yourself/drag and drop website builder for the public,[6][7] with a $30,000 seed fund from his father,[8] a small grant from the university,[9] and 300 beta testers who paid a discounted rate.[6][10][11][12] At that time, Casalena was the company's sole developer and employee, and worked out of his dorm room.[6][11]

By the time Casalena graduated in 2007, Squarespace was making annual revenues of $1 million.[7] He moved to New York City, began hiring, and had 30 employees by 2010.[7][12] That year, Squarespace received $38.5 million in its first round of venture capital funding led by Index Ventures and Accel Partners,[13] enabling it to hire more staff, continue to develop its software,[14] and double its marketing budget.[5] From 2009 to 2012, it grew an average of 266% in yearly revenue.[15] In April 2014, it received another $40 million in funding.[16][17] By 2015, it had reached $100 million in revenue and 550 employees.[7]

Squarespace purchased Super Bowl advertising spots in 2014,[18][5] 2015,[19] 2016,[20] 2017[21] and 2018.[22] Its 2017 ad won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial.[21] In 2017, it signed a sponsorship deal with the New York Knicks to add the Squarespace logo to their uniforms.[23]

After the Unite the Right rally in 2017, Squarespace received a petition with 58,000 signatures and removed a group of websites for violating its terms of service against "bigotry or hatred" towards demographic groups.[24][25] In 2017, it raised an additional $200 million in funding, boosting its value to $1.7 billion.[26] This funding was earmarked for reacquiring interests from investors.[26]

In 2018, Squarespace partnered with the Madison Square Garden Company to launch the "Make It Awards", which awarded $30,000 to entrepreneurs (4 winners, totaling $120,000).[27]

Squarespace acquired appointment scheduling company Acuity Scheduling in April 2019.[28] In October 2019, Squarespace acquired Unfold, an app founded by Alfonso Cobo that allows users to editorialize their social media content.[29] In April 2021, the company bought hospitality industry management platform Tock for more than $400 million.[30]

In early 2021, the company filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public through direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SQSP".[31][32][33] In March 2021, Squarespace raised $300 million in a round of funding led by Dragoneer, Tiger Global, D1 Capital Partners and Fidelity Management & Research Company with participation from existing investors. This funding round valued the company at $10 billion.[34]

Squarespace agreed to be acquired for $6.9 billion and taken private by British private equity firm Permira in May 2024.[35] Permira increased its offer to $7.2 billion after the proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that Squarespace shareholders reject the original offer, which undervalued the company. The acquisition was finalized in October 2024.[36]

Corporate affairs

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Leadership

[edit]

Squarespace is managed by CEO and Founder Anthony Casalena. Other key executives are:[37]

  • Courtenay O'Connor, General Counsel
  • David Lee, Chief Creative Officer
  • John Colton, Chief Technology Officer
  • Kinjil Mathur, Chief Marketing Officer
  • Nathan Gooden, Chief Financial Officer
  • Jarlath Doherty, Chief People Officer
  • Paul Gubbay, Chief Product Officer
  • Raphael Fontes, Senior Vice President, Customer Operations
  • Roberta Meo, Vice President, Channels and Services
  • Dan Chandre, Vice President, Head of Acuity Scheduling & Squarespace Payments
  • Matthew Tucker, Senior Vice President, Head of Tock

Product / business model

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As of November 2022, Squarespace had more than four million subscriptions.[33] Its users employ pre-built website templates, and a variety of drag and drop widgets to add elements such as text and images.[14] Its developers also create custom templates that are sold to users.[14] On-screen instructions walk users through things like search engine optimization and setting up e-commerce.[7] Its services are in direct competition with WordPress.com,[38] Wix.com,[39] Webflow.com,[40] Weebly, Pixpa, Strikingly[41] and other digital website building agencies.[42]

Squarespace was initially built for creating and hosting blogs.[10] E-commerce features, such as integration with Stripe for accepting credit card payments, was added in 2013.[43] In 2014, more commerce features were added; a mobile version of the service was released; a separate facility was added for developers writing custom templates and features;[44] and a logo-creation app was introduced in partnership with icon designer Noun Project.[45]

In 2011, Squarespace was upgraded to version 6, with new templates, a grid-based user interface, and other enhancements.[14] Version 7, which went live in 2014, replaced its coding backend with a drag and drop interface,[46][47] and added integration with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite and Google Apps for Work) and Getty Images.[17] In 2016, Squarespace started selling domains, putting it in more direct competition with GoDaddy;[48] and added an analytics dashboard[49] and PayPal integration.[50]

On June 15, 2023, Squarespace concluded an agreement to purchase the Google Domains business, including approximately 10 million registered domain names.[51][52]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Squarespace 2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 28, 2024.
  2. ^ "Squarespace Offices / A+I". ArchDaily. July 31, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  3. ^ Giles, Margaret (May 19, 2021). "What to Know as Squarespace Goes Public". Morningstar.com. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  4. ^ "Usage statistics and market share of Squarespace". w3techs.com. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d Cole, Samantha (May 21, 2014). "How Squarespace's CEO Pivoted to Scale for Millions". Fast Company. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d e "About Us - Squarespace".
  7. ^ a b c d e Clifford, Catherine (April 22, 2016). "How Squarespace Went From a Dorm-Room Project to a $10 Million Web Publishing Platform". Entrepreneur. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  8. ^ "UMD Alumnus Company Squarespace to Run Inaugural Big Game Ad". UMD Right Now :: University of Maryland. February 1, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  9. ^ Patterson, Dan (June 30, 2016). "How Squarespace became a multimillion dollar publishing giant". TechRepublic. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  10. ^ a b "How Squarespace became a multimillion-dollar publishing giant". TechRepublic. June 30, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  11. ^ a b Caumont, Andrea (September 13, 2004). "Squarespace Lets Users Manage Multi-Page Web Sites". The Washington Post.
  12. ^ a b Rusli, Evelyn (July 13, 2010). "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  13. ^ "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  14. ^ a b c d "Squarespace 6: Rebuilt From The Ground Up To Take On WordPress, Tumblr And Everyone Else". TechCrunch. October 21, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  15. ^ "Fast 50". Crain’s New York Business. October 7, 2013.
  16. ^ Zipkin, Nina (February 15, 2018). "The Founder of Squarespace Explains Why You Don't Want to Raise As Much Money as Possible". Entrepreneur. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  17. ^ a b Warren, Christina (October 7, 2014). "Squarespace Ramps up its Tools to Compete with Wordpress". Mashable.
  18. ^ "UMD Alumnus Company Squarespace to Run Inaugural Big Game Ad". research.umd.edu. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  19. ^ Stampler, Laura (January 28, 2015). "This Super Bowl Ad Purposely Wants to Put You to Sleep". Time. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  20. ^ "Key and Peele turn Squarespace's Super Bowl ad into an event". USA TODAY. January 1, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  21. ^ a b "Squarespace's Super Bowl Ad With John Malkovich Wins the Emmy for Best Commercial". AdWeek. September 11, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  22. ^ Poggi, Jeanine (January 31, 2018). "Squarespace's Super Bowl Ad Is Just Keanu Standing on a Motorcycle". AdAge. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  23. ^ Soshnick, Scott (October 10, 2017). "Knicks Team Up With Squarespace for Patch Sponsorship Deal". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  24. ^ "Website host Squarespace to remove a 'group of sites' after violence at Charlottesville white nationalist rally". Washington Post. August 17, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  25. ^ "Squarespace won't host your racist websites, either". CNET. July 23, 2014. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  26. ^ a b Vynck, Gerrit De (December 14, 2017). "Squarespace Raises Funding at $1.7 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  27. ^ "The New York Knicks and Squarespace Announce Second Annual "Make It Awards" – The Madison Square Garden Company". www.themadisonsquaregardencompany.com. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  28. ^ Ha, Anthony (April 23, 2019). "Squarespace makes its first acquisition with Acuity Scheduling". TechCrunch.
  29. ^ Ha, Anthony (October 22, 2019). "Squarespace acquires social media authoring startup Unfold". TechCrunch.
  30. ^ Roof, Katie (April 1, 2021). "Squarespace Buys Tech Startup Tock for $400 Million Plus". Washington Post.
  31. ^ "Squarespace confidentially files for stock market listing". Reuters. January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  32. ^ "Website-building company Squarespace confidentially files to go public". Business Insider. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  33. ^ a b Novet, Jordan (April 16, 2021). "Website maker Squarespace files to go public on NYSE through direct listing". CNBC.
  34. ^ Azevedo, Mary Ann (March 16, 2021). "Squarespace raises $300M at a staggering $10B valuation". TechCrunch.
  35. ^ "Software company Squarespace being taken private by Permira in $6.9 billion deal". Associated Press. May 13, 2024.
  36. ^ Sawers, Paul (October 17, 2024). "Permira completes Squarespace acquisition after upping bid to $7.2B". TechCrunch.
  37. ^ "Our Team". Squarespace. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  38. ^ "Squarespace vs. WordPress.com: Which Is Best for Easy Website Creation?". PCMAG. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  39. ^ Brussel, Joe Van. "Best website builder for 2021: Squarespace, Wix and more compared". CNET. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  40. ^ "Webflow vs. Squarespace: Head to Head Comparison in 2022 | Flowout | Flowout". www.flowout.com. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  41. ^ "14 Squarespace Alternatives & Why You Need One". blog.hubspot.com. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  42. ^ "The Difference Between Squarespace and a Web Design Agency". Whitehat Blog. September 9, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  43. ^ Summers, Nick (February 14, 2013). "Squarespace Adds Commerce Tools To Its Website Builder". The Next Web. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  44. ^ Novet, Jordan (April 16, 2014). "Don't forget about website runner Squarespace. It just raised $40M". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  45. ^ Brownlee, John (January 22, 2014). "Squarespace Makes Designing A Logo Dead Simple". Co.Design. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  46. ^ Nudd, Tim (October 20, 2014). "Squarespace's Radical Update Is Like a Blank Canvas. So Its New Ads Are, Too". Adweek.
  47. ^ Rhodes, Margaret (October 7, 2014). "The New Squarespace is a UX Dream that Eliminates the Backend Entirely". Wired.
  48. ^ Ungerleider, Neal (April 15, 2016). "Now Competing To Be The Master Of Your Domain: Squarespace". Fast Company. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  49. ^ Ha, Anthony (June 14, 2016). "Squarespace introduces new analytics for its commerce-focused customers". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  50. ^ "Squarespace businesses can now accept PayPal". The Next Web. November 1, 2016. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  51. ^ Li, Abner (June 15, 2023). "Google Domains shutting down, assets sold and being migrated to Squarespace". 9to5Google. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  52. ^ "Squarespace Enters Definitive Agreement to Acquire Google Domains Assets" (Press release). PR Newswire. June 15, 2023. Archived from the original on June 15, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
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