Squarespace’s 20 Key Moments in 2022
With countless product launches and enhancements for our customers, while introducing new offerings that our employees care about, and continuing to navigate life post-pandemic, we can say that it’s been a year for Squarespace! We’re taking the opportunity to stop and reflect on our team members, our customers, and some of our biggest moments in 2022. Consider this a celebration of all that Squarespace and our community achieved.
Unveiled our New Paid Sabbatical program!
01
This year we were thrilled to recognize and reward our tenured full-time employees who have at least 6 consecutive years of service at Squarespace with the opportunity to take a paid Sabbatical Leave. Sabbaticals provide employees the opportunity to disconnect from the office and their day-to-day responsibilities in order to refresh, recharge, and pursue their passions. In its inaugural year, we already have employees across departments who will be taking advantage of the program.
Kicked Off ‘You’ve Got This’
02
This year, we launched You’ve Got This, a new video series on LinkedIn in which Squarespace customer support agents give us the rundown on new Squarespace features. You’ve Got This connects Squarespace employees to Squarespace customers, taking a deep dive into various products and product features to help them succeed using Squarespace. Episode topics include Using Discounts to Build Your Mailing List, Squarespace Scheduling Invoices, Using Unfold Bio Sites, Building Your Brand and more!
We kicked off the year with a showstopper, revealing our eighth Super Bowl campaign starring Zendaya, directed by Edgar Wright, and featuring a special appearance by André '3000' Benjamin. Inspired by the classic tongue twister Sally Sells Seashells, the spot features Zendaya as Sally, an entrepreneur looking to grow her seashell selling business. The story unfolds with narration from master of verse André '3000' Benjamin, who chronicles Sally's business transformation, from selling and shipping seashells to several spots, straight from her sleek Squarespace store to selling everything from seashell serenity sessions, tours of the seaside, seashell sequin shirts, seashell suits and… well, you get the idea. Take a look at Zendaya’s updated Squarespace website here.
Debuted Sally Sells Seashells: Big Game Ad
03
In 2022, we announced Squarespace Refresh, an annual release of new product features and updates that empower customers to build their empires and transact online with a beautifully designed digital presence. Since last October, Squarespace has released over 100 product features and updates to support the next generation of entrepreneurs and creators. With our latest tools, Squarespace combines a clear path to monetization with our world class design, enabling entrepreneurs to experiment with new revenue streams and turn their craft, skills or expertise into their livelihood. This year’s Squarespace Refresh featured Video Monetization, Custom Merch, Commerce Releases, Scheduling and much more. Explore Squarespace Refresh 2022 here.
Celebrated Squarespace Refresh
04
Got Creative with our First Squarespace Icon
05
In 2022, we launched Squarespace Icons, a new campaign that pairs the brand with visionary creatives and entrepreneurs to design limited edition templates. The first collaboration available features an exclusive Fluid Engine template with multidisciplinary artist, Björk. Inspired by the organic, interconnected lines of fungal networks, Björk’s template features full bleed visuals, layered content, and a bespoke mobile design that come together to create an immersive and flowing context experience.
This year we held our second annual Design Week, a period of time to collectively focus on elevating the experience design of our products across the board. Team members across Product and Engineering were invited to participate in identifying and addressing UX issues including improvements around cross-product cohesion, accessibility, delightful details, and more. By annually carving out intentional time to build empathy for our customers, prioritize the details that matter, and take our end-to-end experience from good to great, we’re recommitting to our company value that design is not a luxury.
Celebrated Design Week
06
In November, Tock launched its own ecommerce platform, Tock Wine Shop, making it possible for winery partners to sell directly to consumers, while continuing to manage tasting reservations on its all-in-one platform. Tock Wine Shop is a direct-to-consumer marketplace to connect thousands of partner wineries with millions of Tock account holders, enabling wineries to expand their reach and directly sell to Tock's millions of users who have a strong interest in wine, travel, and dining. The aim of Tock Wine Shop is to inspire consumers to support handcrafted, small producer wines, family vineyards, and celebrated winemakers both locally and nationwide. Check it out here.
Introduced Tock Wine Shop
07
In 2022, our employee population participated in monetary charitable contributions through our company match program amounting to over 413 organizations. This year in particular, employees chose to contribute to non-profit and social impact organizations such as the Ukraine Humanitarian Aid Fund, Hurricane Fiona Relief Fund and a host of others.
Supported Philanthropic Efforts
08
Partnered with The Stack World for A Mentorship Program
09
Together with The Stack World, Squarespace launched a mentorship program that aims to empower and encourage female creators ready to get their business idea off the ground. Accepted mentees receive 1:1 mentorship; a complimentary invitation to The Stack World Conference; access to Squarespace led Creator workshops on how to build and maintain their brand online; a one-year Squarespace subscription where they can grow their online presence; as well as other programming. The mentorship program is tailor-made for creators who are looking for the support, guidance and knowledge that both the Squarespace and The Stack World communities have to offer.
DEVELOPED SQUARESPACE’S FIRST AUDIO SERIES: ’MAKING IT’
10
Podcasts have long been central to Squarespace’s efforts to reach entrepreneurs and creators. In March, we launched, Making It, our very own audio series about starting and sustaining a small business today. In this series, we sit down with creators and entrepreneurs to learn more about their journeys and backstories. In the first three episodes we meet three Squarespace customers, and learn more about what motivates them to pursue their businesses and the setbacks they've overcome along the way. Check out Making It on Spotify.
Took Our ERGs Global & Re-introduced Carespace
11
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are crucial to fostering a diverse, inclusive, equitable and culturally connected workplace. This year, our existing local ERGs were brought together to form global ERG communities. Our ERGs also grew to include employees from Tock, which Squarespace acquired last year. Squarespace also reintroduced Carespace, an ERG community for employees with caregiving responsibilities for children, parents, and other loved ones. The ERG’s mission is to share resources, experiences, and provide support and safe space for its members while striving to raise the profile of all Caregivers and help educate about the inherent challenges of caregiving.
This Summer we launched Fluid Engine, a next generation website design system that reimagines drag-and-drop technology for a truly customizable, fast, and easy website design experience for desktop and mobile. This powerful and versatile evolution of Squarespace’s page editing system allows our customers to unlock what we call Unbreakable Creativity – the ability to push creative boundaries in web design with confidence. Fluid Engine provides our customers with maximum freedom to easily play with, experiment, and stretch creative limits through an unrestricted canvas. Learn more about the creative possibilities with Fluid Engine right here.
Unveiled Fluid Engine Launch
12
Named Nathan Gooden our Chief Financial Officer
13
In October of 2022, we appointed Nathan Gooden as Squarespace’s new Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Nathan has more than two decades of financial leadership in the technology sector. He joined Squarespace from Amazon, where he spent the past five years as the CFO of Amazon Alexa WorldWide, overseeing their global financial operation. We’re thrilled to have Nathan as our new CFO!
Launched Digital Collectibles for Unfold
14
This year, we launched Unfold Digital Collectibles, which allows creators the ability to create, sell, and promote their own digital collectibles – unique or limited-edition copies of virtual items customers can sell – with the ease of managing their collections right within the Unfold app. Download the Unfold app to create, sell and promote your own art as digital collectibles (NFTs)!
For 5 years, Squarespace has held the annual Make It Awards in support of local entrepreneurs and small businesses who embody the passion and drive of New York. This year, we launched the first Australian ‘Make it Awards’ as part of the 2022 Vivid Sydney program in support of Aussie entrepreneurs, creators and small businesses. The winners, Lousy Ink, The Difference Org, and Reef Design Lab, each received a grant of $30,000, a one year Squarespace website subscription and a one-year Unfold Pro subscription to accelerate their success. Learn more about the winners on our MAKING IT blog.
Took the ‘Make It Awards’ to Australia
15
Held Our First In-person Internship Program Since 2019!
16
The office quiet was whisked away this summer as we hosted 23 summer interns in-person for the first time since 2019. Our New York Headquarters was full of new inquisitive talent over the course of 14 weeks. Interns were hands-on in the projects of the Engineering and Product departments. They also participated in a variety of discussions and workshops with leaders across the business.
Established New Creator Tools on Bio Sites
17
Since its launch in 2021, our Bio Sites from Unfold product has existed as a tool to help creators and entrepreneurs to easily connect with their audience. Bio Sites provide creators with a beautiful one-page link-in-bio website to feature content, merch, digital collectables, and more—in one place. This year, we launched new tools within our Bio Sites product that allow creators to further build their brands by scheduling posts, adding music to their Bio Sites, and accepting tips from supporters. We have more exciting Bio Sites updates coming in 2023 – you can launch your own Bio Site today.
Held Our First Circle Day & Launched Circle Pros Blog
18
For the first time in Squarespace history, we hosted Circle Day, a hybrid event dedicated to giving our Circle community, Squarespace’s partner program for professional web designers, behind-the-scenes product access and first-hand knowledge from some of Squarespace Circle’s most influential members. The event was hosted at our NYC office, and was streamed online for remote attendees. Speakers included Chief Product Officer, Paul Gubbay, The Cut’s Editor-In-Chief, Lindsay Peoples, and many more. We also refreshed the Circle blog, which features curated insights on current design trends, industry best practices, and practical ways to acquire new clients. Learn more about the Circle community, and how to join here.
Received Recognition in Various Categories
19
We are continuously humbled to be recognized as a best in class organization in various areas including being employer of choice, the excellence of our customer support team, our impeccable in-house creative work, or as an accelerating business. In 2022 alone, Squarespace won over 20 awards. We were named to a dozen best workplaces lists from Built In, Comparably, Great Place to Work Ireland, Healthiest Place to Work. We were awarded multiple Stevie awards for the work of our Customer Operations team. Our in-house Creative team was recognized for their inspiring creative work across the Shots awards, Ad Age’s “A List Awards,” and a Webby Award for our Creative campaign with Netflix and John McEnroe. And, recently, we were named to Crain’s New York Business’ “Fast 50” for being one of the fastest growing companies in the New York City metro area.
Employer Branding Influencer | Built In
Best Large Companies to Work for in NYC | Built In
Best Company Compensation | Comparably
Best Company Work-Life Balance | Comparably
Best Company Perks & Benefits | Comparably
Best Company Happiness | Comparably
Best HR Teams | Comparably
Best Company NYC | Comparably
Best Product & Design Teams | Comparably
Best Company for Leadership | Comparably
Best Companies for Women | Comparably
Best Technology Companies | Comparably
Best Places to Work in Tech | Great Place to Work Ireland
Best Workplaces in Ireland | Great Place to Work Ireland
Healthiest Employer Award NYC | Healthiest Employer
Healthiest Employer Award Oregon | Healthiest Employer
Grew Internationally
20
In 2022, we've been lucky enough to grow our teams internationally and have welcomed new Squarespace talent throughout the globe. This year, 31% of our hires were outside of the US. In addition to growing our teams, we've taken up residence at coworking spaces in the UK, Netherlands, and Australia and also established a presence in Portugal, planned to open in 2023. Additionally, you can now follow all the great work coming out of the UK and Australia via our new social pages that were recently launched.