20 key moments for Squarespace in 2020.
2020 has been a really tough year for all of us. But together, we can persevere.
When reflecting on this year’s events around the world, we also took an opportunity to reflect on our team members, our customers, and our community. Though this year has been challenging on many fronts, it’s inspired us to take more action as an organization. Here’s a look back on our key moments in 2020. We know there will be a lot more to tackle in the new year, and we are committed to doing it. Together.
1/20
Took an employee-first approach to working remotely in 2020.
When we heard of the rapid spread of COVID-19 internationally, our team acted quickly and established a cross-functional task force a month before the pandemic reached any cities where we have offices. We created an employee-first COVID-19 response, which included WFH planning and guidance, transparent communications with employees, ways to keep our newly virtual workforce connected, and a phased approach for volunteers to return safely to the office. We also made sure to provide employees with any office or technical equipment they requested to set up their home offices.
We recognized that the coronavirus pandemic had a significant impact on our employees’ overall mental health and well-being, so we focused on creating related programming, sharing and centralizing our mental health and well-being benefits and resources, and introducing additional benefits to support our employees during this time.
As we enter another year of unknowns, we are committed to prioritizing transparency and keeping our employees’ mental health and well-being top of mind.
2/20
Made a pledge to help drive social justice reform.
Earlier this year, Squarespace announced actions toward supporting social justice and dismantling long-standing systems of oppression — including donating a total of $500,000 in installments over the next three years to organizations working toward alleviating racial inequality and furthering criminal justice reform in the U.S. Our commitments will be ongoing and that includes advancing our diversity & inclusion efforts internally, as well as continuing to find new ways to prioritize the promotion of Black creators who use Squarespace, and customers using their causes, voices, and platforms to enact change.
The first donation in the amount of $100,000 has been granted to The Sentencing Project, which has worked for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system for 30 years. Learn more about our $500,000 pledge via the Squarespace Newsroom below, and read our Q&A here with Amy Fettig, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project.
3/20
Offered support to our customers.
Throughout a challenging year, we worked to ease stress on our customers: enhancing our 24/7 customer care, offering support articles on our MAKING IT blog (see #17), extending the use of our gift card feature, offering 1:1 financial support to businesses experiencing hardship, prioritizing new features to help businesses impacted by COVID — and more.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect our country and world, we remain committed to supporting our customers. Be sure to check out our resource list for customers below.
4/20
Introduced two new leaders to our executive team.
We are very excited to have welcomed a new Chief Product Officer and Chief Financial Officer to Squarespace this year.
Chief Product Officer Paul Gubbay is leading our Product Development and Product Design teams. As an industry veteran, he spent the last 15 years leading the Design and Web Engineering teams at Adobe. Paul will be instrumental in helping us unify and grow our product organization.
Marcela Martin, our new Chief Financial Officer, joined the executive team leading Squarespace’s Finance and Corporate Development functions. Marcela is a seasoned leader with 25+ years of executive leadership experience including most recently as Booking.com’s SVP and CFO. She was previously EVP and CFO at National Geographic Partners.
5/20
Enhanced our perks and benefits.
We entered 2020 with exciting changes and additions to our employee perks and benefits offerings. This included a paid family leave of up to 20 weeks — inclusive of parents and caregivers — as well as fertility and adoption benefits.
In 2021, we are again excited for new additions to our perks and benefits program, including additional mental health support and resources to all employees, as well as added top-tier insurance coverage for our transgender community.
6/20
Refreshed our company vision, mission, and values.
As we continue to grow, we are adapting and evolving along the way. This year, we took the time to reflect on the culture we’ve created, as well as the culture we want to cultivate. Having strong values in place inspires Squarespace employees by creating a sense of a shared ideal for what the company should strive for, while also inspiring our customers to trust in our organization because they understand and align with our ethos.
Our belief
We believe in the power of the individual to make great things.
Our vision
We exist to help people with creative ideas stand out and succeed.
Our mission
We create a modern platform that enables millions to build a brand, share their stories, and transact with their customers in an impactful and beautiful online presence.
Our values
Be the Customer
Design Is Not a Luxury
Build the Ideal
Learn Fast, Act Fast
Protect Creativity
Simplify
7/20
Furthered our commitment to D&I.
We are committed to building and developing diverse teams so that we can intimately understand, and create for, the multifaceted cultures and identities of our customers. During what has been an especially turbulent year, our leadership team came together to take meaningful action on our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
To further our action for D&I, we:
Launched a Diversity & Inclusion Task force and various subcommittees with members across all departments to accelerate our progress in the D&I space.
Formed an Inclusion Advisory Council to champion, advocate, and support D&I initiatives in order to progress our D&I strategy forward.
Refreshed our employee resource group (ERG) governance model, giving more employees the opportunity to participate in a leadership capacity.
8/20
Hosted our first-ever remote internship program.
Earlier this year, as the world began to realize the magnitude of COVID-19, we made the decision to move forward with a remote summer internship program at Squarespace. Our Campus Recruiting team spent countless hours determining what a remote internship would look like, and how we would create an amazing Squarespace experience for our class of 20 interns.
For an in-depth recap of how it all came together, check out this LinkedIn blog post authored by one of our Senior Campus Recruiters, Kelley Yamate.
9/20
Fostered connection among our employees through 50+ virtual events.
At Squarespace, we are fortunate enough to have a world-class Employee Experience (EE) team — think of them as the connectors of our internal organization. They connect employees to our customers and to each other. In a year when feeling connected has been more challenging — yet more necessary — than ever before, our EE team put together over 50 virtual programs and events in partnership with Squarespace customers for employees to participate in. These spanned a variety of topics and interests — including kid-friendly programming for working parents, pasta-making classes, group cardio classes, drag trivia (a Squarespace favorite), yoga and meditation sessions, and more.
The team also launched a temporary internal website called “SQSP Connect,” designed as a repository of resources during COVID-19 times. The site houses relevant past and upcoming events, as well as crowdsourced recommendations, parenting hacks, recipes, COVID-19 related benefits and employee-generated wellness tips, and more.
10/20
Made the U.S. Election Day a meeting-free day company-wide.
In addition to making November 3rd a meeting-free day across all four of our offices, Squarespace was proud to join the diverse coalition of companies behind the nonpartisan Time To Vote movement to ensure employees had all the flexibility needed in their work schedules to vote in this year’s U.S. Election. Our Founder & CEO Anthony Casalena also signed the Civic Alliance pledge supporting safe, healthy and trusted elections, and the team at Unfold launched a VOTE Collection of templates to get young people excited about fulfilling their civic duty.
11/20
Celebrated heritage months and intersectionality.
We strive to celebrate the histories and diverse backgrounds of all of our team members throughout the year, but this year, we wanted to ensure that these experiences were especially lifted up during heritage months. Our Marketing, People, and Creative teams collaborated with our Employee Resource Group leaders to celebrate each month with unique themes and special events for all employees to join, and we shared the bold stories and experiences of our employees and honored intersectionality across Squarespace.
Additionally, we celebrated a variety of Squarespace customers over the course of the year in connection with heritage months — check out our Creative Origins hero video released during Black History Month below.
12/20
Brought exciting new products to market.
We recently celebrated our biggest product launch of 2020: Member Areas, a new revenue stream opportunity for our customers that allows creators to monetize their content by gating it in members-only areas. Unfold for Brands achieved liftoff this summer, allowing established and up-and-coming businesses alike to create engaging branded content from anywhere. From enhancing Commerce offerings and bolstering Email Campaigns, to adding new Squarespace Extensions and domain options, we covered a lot of ground in 2020 — and we’re excited for new product innovations in the coming year under Paul Gubbay’s leadership.
13/20
Launched new, innovative marketing campaigns
In alignment with this year’s Big Game, Squarespace proudly enlisted Winona Ryder for a lighthearted spot about returning to your roots — which saw Winona head home to her birthplace of Winona, MN, and embark on a creative photography project, Squarespace site included. In addition to the Big Game spot, the campaign included a long-form spot, a behind-the-scenes exclusive, a limited edition photobook shot by Winona herself — as well as free SQSP websites offered to the residents of the small town of Winona.
In the spring, during the first wave of COVID-19, we launched “For You, By Us” — in which we celebrated businesses on Squarespace doing the most for their customers with a large-scale digital ad campaign that drove clicks directly back to the business websites.
This summer, we celebrated the Class of 2020 and some of the most brilliant, up-and-coming young minds poised to change the way the world works. And most recently, our Browser History campaign highlighted six incredible Squarespace customers who made the best of a not-so-great year.
14/20
Produced our first-ever 100% remote campaign.
With COVID-19 still a major concern early in the summer, our Creative team had to get a little more… well, creative. Produced completely remotely, our third quarter Launch It campaign encouraged people to take a chance on a new idea and send it out into the world. Encompassing an anthem video ad, multiple short films, still photography, custom social assets and more, this 100% remote campaign was no easy feat. Be sure to catch the hero film below.
15/20
Transformed Hack Week into a virtual experience.
Throughout the year at Squarespace, we host multiple Hack Weeks — where teams across the company are freed up to work on projects that inspire exploration, innovation, and creation. With all SQSP employees working remotely due to the coronavirus, we transformed both our 17th and 18th-ever Hack Weeks to be virtual for the first time ever. Watch below for a brief history of our much-loved program.
16/20
Showcased thought leadership at the executive level.
Despite the turbulence of 2020, Squarespace’s executive team didn’t slow down. Founder & CEO Anthony Casalena was named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40 List in the Technology section, and spearheaded our company’s pledge to help drive social justice reform (see No. 2 above).
Chief Creative Officer David Lee, in between leading groundbreaking ad campaigns, found time for in-depth features with Working Not Working and Adweek, among other outlets.
Chief Marketing Officer Kinjil Mathur recently spoke in-depth with Soho House about the power of entrepreneurship, and newly appointed Chief Product Officer Paul Gubbay (see No. 4 on our list for more) offered commentary to Protocol about the pandemic-accelerated digital shift.
17/20
Brought the MAKING IT blog to life.
At the start of the year, we proudly introduced MAKING IT: our editorial destination featuring stories and solutions for the modern entrepreneur. Chock-full of customer profiles, trend pieces, educational guides, original video content and more, the blog has become a must-visit destination over the course of 2020.
18/20
Partnered with impactful organizations.
We are inspired by the organizations we’ve partnered with over the past year — including Grace Hopper, LeadDev, The Creative Collection NYC, and ColorStack, to name a few. We are proud to continue to support mission-driven organizations that are making a real difference in their communities and in the world.
19/20
Supported local businesses through the Make It Awards.
This past January, alongside partner Madison Square Garden, we were proud to present the third annual Make It Awards in support of tristate-area entrepreneurs and small businesses who embody the hustle and grind of New York.
Anthony Casalena started Squarespace in 2003 with a $30K loan to purchase the company’s first servers. For the past three years, we’ve rewarded four emerging businesses with $30K grants to help them get their initiatives off the ground. In addition to the business grant, the four winners received a 1:1 mentorship with one of the 2020 Make It Awards judges, a free SQSP website for 5 years, as well as on-court recognition at a New York Knicks game in early February.
This year, our four winners were:
Dollaride: Allows users to see where licensed dollar vans are operating within a one-mile radius — as well as where they are headed.
Fast Feet NYC: A nonprofit with a mission to promote equality in physical activity, nutrition, and social development for children of all abilities.
The Lead NYC: A sports performance training company that provides student-athletes with the necessary tools to prosper in all walks of life.
Oonee: A smart, modular, customizable pod that provides secure parking for scooters and bicycles as well as public space amenities.
20/20
Garnered recognition as a best-in-class brand.
Squarespace would not be the company it is today without the grit, creativity, and dedication across all of our teams. We are proud of what we have accomplished and look forward to continuing to bring our vision and mission to life.
This year, we were fortunate enough to receive the following recognition:
Named Ad Age In-House Creative Agency of the Year, making us one of only a handful of brands recognized with this honor.
Won four Webby Awards: Video: Comedy; Video: Scripted (People’s Voice); Advertising, Media & PR: Products & Services (People’s Voice); and Advertising, Media & PR: Best Copywriting (People’s Voice)
Won Silver Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year