Squarespace
Type of business | Private |
---|---|
Type of site | SaaS-based hosting platform |
Headquarters | New York, NY (SoHo) |
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 |
Alexa rank | 674 (As of 10 October 2016)[2] |
Advertising | Yes. |
Registration | Required; subscription needed for certain features. |
Launched | January 2004 |
Squarespace is a SaaS-based content management system-integrated website builder, blogging platform and hosting service. The system allows individuals and businesses to create and maintain websites and blogs.[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 over 500 employees[1] in 190 countries, 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] Jimdo, Webflow, Webydo[10] amongst others. Some of these competitors make services such as templates, hosting and domain registration available separately or in partial bundles.[11]
The exact number of Squarespace users is not disclosed, although Casalena estimates that Squarespace signs up about 1,000 new customers a day.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14]
Squarespace raised another $40 million in Series B funding from General Atlantic in April 2014.[15][16] This is a minority investment. Anton Levy, Managing Director of General Atlantic, will join the Squarespace board of directors.[15]
Awards
- 2012: Listed in Time.com's 50 Best Websites of 2012.[17]
- 2012: Ranked #2 Best Place to Work in New York City by Crain's New York.[18]
- 2013: #45 in the Forbes annual list of America's Most Promising Companies.[19]
- 2013: Awarded a Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Website Builder by CMS Critic.[20]
- 2014: Won 4 Webby Awards.[21]
- 2014: Named the #3 best medium company to work at in the USA by Fortune.[22]
- 2015: Named the #5 best medium company to work at in the USA by Fortune.[23]
- 2015: Named to Wealthfront's list of Career-Launching Companies.[24]
- 2015: Ranked #7 Best Place to Work in New York City by Crain's New York.[25]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "About Squarespace". Squarespace. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
- ↑ "Squarespace.com Site Info". Retrieved October 10, 2016.
- ↑ Squarespace 6 For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. 2013. ISBN 978-1-118-57543-7. 360 pages.
- 1 2 Entis, Laura (June 22, 2015). "How the Founder of Squarespace Mastered the Tricky Role of CEO". Entrepreneur. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
- ↑ "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". Techcrunch. 2010-07-13. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
- ↑ Napier, Lopez November 17, 2014 TheNextWeb. "Squarespace acquires Brace.io to bolster its developer tools"
- 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.
- ↑ "Forbes Cloud 100". Forbes. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
- 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.
- ↑ "Squarespace Website Builder Review". SuperbWebsiteBuilders.com. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
- ↑ "Top Website Builders Reviewed: WIX vs Squarespace vs WordPress vs Shopify vs Weebly". Websitebuilders.net. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- ↑ Pofeldt, Elaine. "How a dorm blog snared $79 million in VC funding". CNBC. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
- ↑ Chapman, Lizette (April 15, 2014). "Squarespace Raises $40M as Website-Tools Battle Heats Up". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
- ↑ "Index, Accel bet big on Squarespace". Reuters. 2010-07-14. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
- 1 2 "Squarespace Takes $40 Million in Growth Equity". BeatBeat.
- ↑ "Squarespace Raises $40M in Series B Funding from Global Growth Investor General Atlantic". General Atlantic.
- ↑ "50 Best Websites 2012". Time (magazine). 2012-09-18. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
- ↑ "Best Places to Work 2012". Crain's New York Business. 2012-12-02. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
- ↑ "America's Most Promising Companies". Forbes. 2013-02-06. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
- ↑ "Critics' Choice Award for Best Website Builder". CMS Critic.
- ↑ "Squarespace Wins Four Webby Awards". Squarespace Blog.
- ↑ "50 Best Small and Medium-Size Companies to Work For". Fortune. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
- ↑ "50 Best Small and Medium-Size Companies to Work For". Fortune. 2015-10-21. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
- ↑ "The 2016 Wealthfront Career-Launching Companies List". Crain's New York Business. 2015-10-06. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
- ↑ "Best Places to Work 2015". Crain's New York Business. 2015-12-04. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
Further reading
- Rhodes, Margaret (2014-10-07). "The New Squarespace Is a UX Dream That Eliminates the Backend Entirely". Wired. Retrieved 2014-10-07.
- Lichtman, Benjamin (February 5, 2016). "Why Squarespace turned to Key and Peele for their Super Bowl 50 campaign". The Drum. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
- Crook, Jordan (October 7, 2014). "This Is The New Squarespace". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2014-10-07.
- Ong, Josh (October 7, 2014). "Squarespace Announces Major Upgrade". TheNextWeb. Retrieved 2014-10-07.