Squarespace
Encyclopedia
Squarespace is a web publishing (blog
ging/content management
) company that sells a software publishing platform
and file server
service to individuals and businesses, providing them the tools and assistance to create and maintain well-designed websites. Squarespace powers tens of thousands of website
s with billions of monthly hits.
20,000–30,000 investment
, in exchange for a 5% share of the company.
An alumnus of the University of Maryland
's "Hinman CEOs" program, Casalena's impetus for creating the software behind the company was his dissatisfaction in finding an elegant solution for publishing his personal web page
. For three years, Casalena was Squarespace's sole full-time employee; after reaching $1 million in revenue in 2007, Casalena turned Squarespace into "a full-fledged business". During this time, AdWords
implementation was instrumental for the service; the cycle of investing more each year in AdWords (beginning with $500 a month) as it brought in increasingly numbers of paying customers allowed the userbase to build up organically; "[Squarespace] really wouldn't be here without AdWords".
Feeling a lot of pressure from the online community
, Casalena originally provided Squarespace's publishing services for free, as were many other platforms on the Internet. However, unhappy with this business model, Casalena quickly moved to a direct commercial plan. As explained by Squarespace CEO Dane Atkinson, this model freed the company from the pressure of advertisers
and allowed them to provide 24-hour customer support
. Atkinson added that company bristles when "so-called experts" tell them they should still be offering a free service, despite what the CEO called their "very successful" experiences thusly.
In the late 2000s, Squarespace annually doubled their users and revenue. In July 2008, after the release of software version 5, paid subscriptions for the service doubled overnight. 2009 found Squarespace on the Inc.
500, as the 339th fastest-growing private company in the United States. In July 2010, the company secured its Series A round
of investment capital; as part of the deal which raised the company's value to between $80 to over $100 million, Squarespace formed a board of directors
, to add its three charter members: Getty Images
CEO and founder Jonathan Klein
, Accel Partners
' Andrew Braccia, and Index Ventures
' Dominique Vidal. Casalena remains Squarespace's largest shareholder
. Speaking with This Week in Startups in January 2011, Casalena opined that the secret of his company's success had been surprising the customer with more and better services than they anticipated.
Squarespace's SoHo
(New York City
) headquarters is at the corner of Broadway
and Grand
, and the company had 30 employees.
, and have been since July 2008.
bricks for the web", a platform of modules that could snap together seamlessly and give the appearance of an integrated final product.
CMSWire reviewed version 4 of the platform's software when it was released in May 2007; calling the interface gorgeous, they noted the introduction of full site searching, FAQ
s, integrated form building, forums, and a Google Maps
component.
Version 5 of the Squarespace platform was released on July 25, 2008. The new interface introduced a drag-and-drop
interface, a modular architecture allowing for easier construction, more than 60 new website styles, and more. Casalena described the goal of the upgrade "to make advanced web publishing widely accessible." Version 5 of the software also cut off support of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6
web browser, despite the latter still having 40.61% market share.
In an interview with TechCrunch
, Casalena revealed that version 6 of the in-house Squarespace publishing platform would probably premiere around April 2011. The goal for version 6 is to "create a richer, cleaner and more fluid experience for the designer, especially the layout system which will evolve into a more free form and flexible format." In a January 2011 interview, though Casalena wouldn't commit to a release date anymore (it will "be ready when it's ready"), he did say that version 6 would be a huge departure from version 5 (moreso than 5 was from 4), and that it would introduce native mobile versions of Squarespace sites which would work well on all mobile devices. Fast Company
magazine speculated Squarespace's plan to "redefine publishing" would involve "possibly embracing social networking, or even advanced future-facing Web tech like HTML5."
application allowing their customers to post to and manage content within their Squarespace-hosted websites. Casalena stated in a 2011 interview that Squarespace spent a lot of time working on the app converting the web interface experience to iPhone, and that though they weren't the first blogging platform with an iPhone app, they were pleased to have translated the experience their customers expected.
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ging/content management
Content management system
A content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...
) company that sells a software publishing platform
Software as a Service
Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...
and file server
File server
In computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for shared disk access, i.e. shared storage of computer files that can be accessed by the workstations that are attached to the computer network...
service to individuals and businesses, providing them the tools and assistance to create and maintain well-designed websites. Squarespace powers tens of thousands of website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s with billions of monthly hits.
Company history
Squarespace was founded in April 2003 by then 21-year-old Marylander Anthony Casalena. After 8–9 months of development and a three-hour "massive, massive fight" with his parents over the matter, Casalena's father made a single US$United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
20,000–30,000 investment
Investment
Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...
, in exchange for a 5% share of the company.
An alumnus of the University of Maryland
University of Maryland
When the term "University of Maryland" is used without any qualification, it generally refers to the University of Maryland, College Park.University of Maryland may refer to the following:...
's "Hinman CEOs" program, Casalena's impetus for creating the software behind the company was his dissatisfaction in finding an elegant solution for publishing his personal web page
Personal web page
Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature rather than on behalf of an employer or institution. Personal web pages are often used solely for informative or entertainment purposes....
. For three years, Casalena was Squarespace's sole full-time employee; after reaching $1 million in revenue in 2007, Casalena turned Squarespace into "a full-fledged business". During this time, AdWords
AdWords
Google AdWords is Google's main advertising product and main source of revenue. Google's total advertising revenues were USD$28 billion in 2010. AdWords offers pay-per-click advertising, cost-per-thousand advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads. The AdWords...
implementation was instrumental for the service; the cycle of investing more each year in AdWords (beginning with $500 a month) as it brought in increasingly numbers of paying customers allowed the userbase to build up organically; "[Squarespace] really wouldn't be here without AdWords".
Feeling a lot of pressure from the online community
Online community
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...
, Casalena originally provided Squarespace's publishing services for free, as were many other platforms on the Internet. However, unhappy with this business model, Casalena quickly moved to a direct commercial plan. As explained by Squarespace CEO Dane Atkinson, this model freed the company from the pressure of advertisers
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
and allowed them to provide 24-hour customer support
Customer support
Customer support is a range of customer services to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, trouble shooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product....
. Atkinson added that company bristles when "so-called experts" tell them they should still be offering a free service, despite what the CEO called their "very successful" experiences thusly.
In the late 2000s, Squarespace annually doubled their users and revenue. In July 2008, after the release of software version 5, paid subscriptions for the service doubled overnight. 2009 found Squarespace on the Inc.
Inc. (magazine)
Inc. magazine, founded in 1979 and based in New York City, is a monthly publication focused on growing companies. The magazine publishes an annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., the "Inc...
500, as the 339th fastest-growing private company in the United States. In July 2010, the company secured its Series A round
Series A round
A Series A round is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture funding in the Silicon Valley model of startup company formation....
of investment capital; as part of the deal which raised the company's value to between $80 to over $100 million, Squarespace formed a board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
, to add its three charter members: Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images, Inc. is a stock photo agency, based in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is a supplier of stock images for business and consumers with an archive of 80 million still images and illustrations and more than 50,000 hours of stock film footage...
CEO and founder Jonathan Klein
Jonathan Klein (Getty Images)
thumb|rightJonathan Klein is Chief Executive Officer of Getty Images, Inc., the company he co-founded with Chairman Mark Getty in March 1995. Klein has led the development and implementation of Getty Images’ strategic direction for more than a decade. Before founding Getty Images, Klein led the...
, Accel Partners
Accel Partners
Accel Partners is a global venture and growth equity firm funding companies from inception through the growth stage.The firm is based in Palo Alto, California with major offices in Bangalore, Beijing, London, and Shanghai....
' Andrew Braccia, and Index Ventures
Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a venture capital investment firm based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in London, Jersey, and starting in 2011, Silcon Valley. The firm was founded in 1996 by Neil Rimer and Giuseppe Zocco. Since its inception, the firm has raised four main venture funds and a growth...
' Dominique Vidal. Casalena remains Squarespace's largest shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
. Speaking with This Week in Startups in January 2011, Casalena opined that the secret of his company's success had been surprising the customer with more and better services than they anticipated.
Squarespace's SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
(New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
) headquarters is at the corner of Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
and Grand
Grand Street (Manhattan)
Grand Street is a street in Manhattan, New York City. It runs east-west parallel to and south of Delancey Street, from SoHo through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side to the East River....
, and the company had 30 employees.
Squarespace platform
Squarespace's infrastructure and colocation services are hosted by PEER 1PEER 1
Peer 1 Hosting provides Internet hosting services that include managed hosting, dedicated servers, colocation, and cloud computing. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Canada and the stock is traded on the TSX under the symbol PIX...
, and have been since July 2008.
History
Casalena began developing the Squarespace software in November 2002. The original vision for the publishing software was that of "LegoLego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
bricks for the web", a platform of modules that could snap together seamlessly and give the appearance of an integrated final product.
CMSWire reviewed version 4 of the platform's software when it was released in May 2007; calling the interface gorgeous, they noted the introduction of full site searching, FAQ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...
s, integrated form building, forums, and a Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
component.
Version 5 of the Squarespace platform was released on July 25, 2008. The new interface introduced a drag-and-drop
Drag-and-drop
In computer graphical user interfaces, drag-and-drop is the action of selecting a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object...
interface, a modular architecture allowing for easier construction, more than 60 new website styles, and more. Casalena described the goal of the upgrade "to make advanced web publishing widely accessible." Version 5 of the software also cut off support of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 6 is the sixth major revision of Internet Explorer, a web browser developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems...
web browser, despite the latter still having 40.61% market share.
In an interview with TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
, Casalena revealed that version 6 of the in-house Squarespace publishing platform would probably premiere around April 2011. The goal for version 6 is to "create a richer, cleaner and more fluid experience for the designer, especially the layout system which will evolve into a more free form and flexible format." In a January 2011 interview, though Casalena wouldn't commit to a release date anymore (it will "be ready when it's ready"), he did say that version 6 would be a huge departure from version 5 (moreso than 5 was from 4), and that it would introduce native mobile versions of Squarespace sites which would work well on all mobile devices. Fast Company
Fast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
magazine speculated Squarespace's plan to "redefine publishing" would involve "possibly embracing social networking, or even advanced future-facing Web tech like HTML5."
iPhone
On November 3, 2009, Squarespace released an iPhoneIPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
application allowing their customers to post to and manage content within their Squarespace-hosted websites. Casalena stated in a 2011 interview that Squarespace spent a lot of time working on the app converting the web interface experience to iPhone, and that though they weren't the first blogging platform with an iPhone app, they were pleased to have translated the experience their customers expected.