

Squarespace raises $38.5M from Index Ventures and Accel Partners - dcurtis
http://blog.squarespace.com/blog/2010/7/13/index-ventures-and-accel-partners-invest-in-squarespace.html

======
redorb
Square space is a website building platform with included hosting.. it appears
their going to charge $30/month for a plan that allow people to build sites
that include the functionality of collect data (forms)

$8/mo gives you 1 gb with 75gb bandwidth and you use their sub domain

$14/mo give access to having up to "250 users" (email subscription?) and
custom URL

$20/mo , $30/mo and $50 really just up the futures to any feature you could
create yourself with the $20/month package that includes HTML injection
points..

a mash up of woofoo, website builder and hosting...sold to people who probably
will never need the 75gb of bandwidth of the first plan..

~~~
JarekS
and to people that don't really need web content management with fancy forms
only something like a forms builder/hosting and an app that will process and
track gathered data (forms + CRM)...

------
MediaSquirrel
I bet the founder took money off the table. Say a $40mil on a $40mil pre, and
the founder walks away with $20mil in his pocket. 9mo later they go freemium.

------
faramarz
Jeez. The offer must have been really attractive.. otherwise why would
Squarespace need all that money? Don't say servers.

Conversely, why would VC's throw in so much money into this business? I just
can't see the exit strategy. Who can you name off top of your head that could
potentially acquire them at a few multiples? I can't.

[Edit] This is just a web design operation, only difference is that the
customers get the CMS login. hehe

~~~
callmeed
It does seem like a lot of money ... but Automattic has raised over $30M for
(primarily) WordPress. And SquareSpace is actually charging money.

Exits? Inuit paid $170M for Homestead in Nov. '07. I'm sure the acquisition
climate is different now but I think there are enough potential fits around.
Adobe comes to mind seeing as they need a better HTML(5) web solution. Not
sure if that's a route they want to go, though.

~~~
photon_off
Rackspace? GoDaddy?

~~~
alttab
Rackspace isn't in the business of consumer products. They are slowly becoming
middleware for MSPs and a platform for cloud based services.

GoDaddy... now there's something.

------
spencerfry
Carbonmade's offices are two floors above Squarespace's in SoHo, New York and
I've gotten to know Anthony (founder) and Dane (CEO) rather well over the past
year. They're such great, smart, and talented people. They really know how to
run an awesome team and only hire the best people. They've got a great culture
in place and always treat their employees very well.

The thing I respect most about Squarespace -- and Anthony mentions this
briefly in his letter -- is that they're always one step ahead of everyone
else and aren't afraid to take the risk in pivoting into a new direction.
Squarespace dropped free accounts from its service about 3 years ago when
everyone else was adding free accounts and that clearly was beneficial for
them. I'm excited to see what they come up with in their next release.

~~~
adii
Hell yeah... I don't have the benefit of having offices this close to
Squarespace, but after spending just one (awesome) lunch with Anthony & Dane I
too can attest that they are super cool & extremely clever. :)

------
hopeless
I recently started up a new blog (<http://nextended.com> for Sony NEX users)
and searched around the available platforms. I've used blogger in the past but
it's pretty clunky these days. I still use self-hosted Wordpress for my
personal blog but I've always been annoyed by the post editor, less-than-
simple customization and frequent security breaches.

In short, I now pay SquareSpace $12/mo to look after hosting, a very
attractive and useful CMS, some good looking templates, point-and-click CSS
customisations, drag-and-drop layout, and built-in analytics. You could do the
same with Wordpress (and, in fairness, customise it more) but SquareSpace wins
if you value your time.

~~~
alttab
I used a custom PHP framework for client sites and Wordpress a lot. However,
due to my time restraints and their money restraints, a lot of clients have
been migrating to Squarespace. This is good because I can still consult and
train them, while getting more bang for everyone's buck.

I don't want to manage entire websites on a client-basis anymore. Its one step
from MSP IT (not like its a bad thing, I just like code).

------
paulsingh
I can't help but wonder what their BHAG is for all this money. It seems like
it's got to be an awfully big target.

~~~
bosch
What does BHAG mean?

~~~
JMiao
let me...

er, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hairy_Audacious_Goal>

------
dstainer
I've used Squarespace for the past 2+ months for my blog on NoSQL and it's
been great. I looked around at the various options when I thought about
starting up and in the end went with Squarespace because of two reasons:

1) It's the hosting provider of highscalability.com and Todd Hoff had a lot of
good things to say about the platform. 2) I saw it as the quickest way to get
something that looked good and allowed me to just start on the content.

It's not the perfect platform. Sometimes you have to some crazy things to make
things work. But overall I've been a very satisfied customer.

If you are interested you can try it out for free for 14-days to see if it
works for you.

Derek

------
Terry_B
Squarespace are offering a great service. Is it a bad sign for my aspirations
as an entrepreneur though that I don't know how I would spend that much money
on a business like that?

I'm guessing a lot would go on infrastructure if they do the hosting
themselves?

~~~
jfarmer
Sales sales sales. And maybe acquisitions.

~~~
Terry_B
Yeah, I'm guessing they could end up surpassing all to become the CMS of
choice for large corporations with their awesome in browser editor.

