Squarespace

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Squarespace
Type of businessPrivate
HeadquartersNew York, NY (SoHo)
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Anthony Casalena
IndustryWeb content management system, Website builder, Web hosting service
Employees385 (as of December 2014)[1]
URLwww.squarespace.com
LaunchedJanuary 2004; 20 years ago (2004-01)

Squarespace is a SaaS-based content management system (CMS) which is composed of a website builder, blogging platform and hosting service. The service allows individuals and businesses to create and maintain websites and blogs.

Since launching in 2004, Squarespace has grown to 385 employees and millions of users have created websites on the Squarespace platform.[3]

History

Squarespace was founded in 2003 and launched in January 2004 by Anthony Casalena using a $30,000 investment from Casalena's father. Casalena created the initial software behind the company after trying and disliking other personal web page platforms.[4] Squarespace was founded to create an all-in-one web publishing solution. On November 17th 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. [5]


Releases

Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release
Version Release date Notes
Old version, no longer maintained: 4 May 2007 Introduced full site searching, FAQs, integrated form building, forums, and a Google Maps component.
Older version, yet still maintained: 5 July 2008 First major interface revision. Added a drag-and-drop interface with extensive use of JavaScript.
Current stable version: 6 July 2012 Completely new system featuring a more free form and flexible layout system. Added portfolio templates, responsive designs which work well on mobile devices. This version added a true developer platform allowing full control of all HTML, CSS and Javascript files. The commerce portion added ShipStation order integration, Xero accounting support, and Stripe payment processing.
Current stable version: 7 October 2014 A major redesign of the Squarespace 6 interface offered as an in-place upgrade for existing users. Added Cover Pages, Getty Images integration, Google Apps integration, 15 new template variants, updated Android apps, and more. [6][7][8]

Awards

  • In 2011, Squarespace Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena was named one of Crains New York's Top Entrepreneurs of 2011.[9]
  • In September 2012, the company was listed in Time.com's 50 Best Websites of 2012.[10]
  • In December 2012, the company was ranked #2 Best Place to Work in New York City by Crain's New York.[11]
  • In January 2013, the company placed #45 in Forbes' annual list of America's Most Promising Companies.[12]
  • In January 2013, Squarespace Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena was named one of America's Most Promising CEOs Under 35 by Forbes.[13]
  • In November 2013, Squarespace was awarded a Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Website Builder by CMS Critic. [14]
  • In April 2014, Squarespace won 4 Webby Awards.[15]
  • In June 2014, Squarespace Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena was listed as one of Inc. Magazine's 35 under 35.[16]
  • In September 2014, Squarespace was named the #3 best small and medium company to work at in the USA by Fortune Magazine [17]

Industry competitors

Squarespace's primary competitors in the website publishing industry include WordPress, Weebly, Wix.com, GoDaddy, amongst others. The exact number of Squarespace users is not disclosed, although Casalena estimates that Squarespace signs up about 1,000 new customers a day.[18]

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. 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.[19]

Squarespace raised another $40 million in Series B funding from General Atlantic in April 2014.[20][21] This is a minority investment. Anton Levy, Managing Director of General Atlantic, will join the Squarespace board of directors.[20]

References

  1. ^ "About Squarespace". Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  2. ^ "Squarespace.com Site Info". Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  3. ^ "About Squarespace". Squarespace. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  4. ^ "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". Techcrunch. 2010-07-13. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  5. ^ Napier, Lopez November 17 2014 TheNextWeb. "Squarespace acquires Brace.io to bolster its developer tools"
  6. ^ "The New Squarespace Is a UX Dream That Eliminates the Backend Entirely". Wired. 2014-10-07. Retrieved 2014-10-07.
  7. ^ "This Is The New Squarespace". TechCrunch. 2014-10-07. Retrieved 2014-10-07.
  8. ^ "Squarespace Announces Major Upgrade". TheNextWeb. 2014-10-07. Retrieved 2014-10-07.
  9. ^ "Top Entrepreneurs 2011". Crain's New York Business. 2011-05-28. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  10. ^ "50 Best Websites 2012". Time (magazine). 2012-09-18. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  11. ^ "Best Places to Work 2012". Crain's New York Business. 2012-12-02. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  12. ^ "America's Most Promising Companies". Forbes. 2013-02-06. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  13. ^ "America's Most Promising CEOs Under 35". Forbes. 2013-02-06. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  14. ^ "Critics' Choice Award for Best Website Builder". CMS Critic.
  15. ^ "Squarespace Wins Four Webby Awards". Squarespace Blog.
  16. ^ "For Squarespace, Slow and Steady Wins the Race". Inc. Magazine. 2014-06-25. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  17. ^ "50 Best Small and Medium-Size Companies to Work For". Fortune Magazine. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  18. ^ Pofeldt, Elaine. "How a dorm blog snared $79 million in VC funding". CNBC. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  19. ^ "Index, Accel bet big on Squarespace". Reuters. 2010-07-14. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
  20. ^ a b "Squarespace Takes $40 Million in Growth Equity". BeatBeat.
  21. ^ "Squarespace Raises $40M in Series B Funding from Global Growth Investor General Atlantic". General Atlantic.

External links

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