Squarespace began as a blog tool that Anthony Casalena wrote for himself while he was a student at the University of Maryland. His father put in $30,000. He had 300 beta testers. Seventeen years later the company hosted sites for photographers, restaurants, and small shops, and its ads were a fixture of podcasts. It skipped the usual IPO and went straight to the New York Stock Exchange through a direct listing in May 2021.

One Founder, No Rush

Casalena founded Squarespace in 2003 and launched it to the public in January 2004. The bet was that people would pay for a site that looked designed, with no code at all. Squarespace sold templates that made a one-person business look polished. It added online stores, domains, and scheduling. In 2021 it bought Tock, the restaurant booking service. Casalena served as CEO the whole way.

Direct to the Floor

Squarespace began trading on the NYSE on May 19, 2021, under SQSP, through a direct listing with a $50 reference price. It sold no new shares. The stock closed its first day below the reference price and spent most of its public life lower still. In 2024 Permira agreed to take the company private. The deal closed in October 2024, valued at about $7.2 billion.

Cover: Composition (No. 1) Gray-Red, Piet Mondrian. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a grid of squares (the site builder).