We toured the Squarespace 6 beta — you’re going to like it.
Sure, building a website has become drag-and-drop. But for most startups, artists, photographers and others without programming experience, that’s drag as in a surprising drag on your time and drop as in drop a few hundred bucks paying someone to fix what you broke poking around in there. Even with a number of large build-a-site providers, it’s still harder than it should be if you’re making any real customizations.
But Squarespace’s pending new release – dubbed Squarespace 6 - appears to be a study in drag-and-drop building. We toured it, and were impressed with the bold, design-heavy templates, which are centered on imagery and more customizable than other services. Photos drag from desktop to browser, resize automatically upon landing, and are optimized for any screen (including the one in your pocket).
Squarespace got its start in 2004 when founder Anthony Casalena borrowed some dough from his father to build “creative tools that power the future of the web”. Eight years in, having powered 1.3 million sites and counting and now on its sixth version — which appears to be the most impressive yet — his vision is on its way to getting some airtime.
Sign up for the beta here.
Now go forth (and build).
By the numbers:
81: Employees
10: Avg. response time (minutes) from customer service
$38.5mm: Venture capital funding received in 2010
$30k: Amount Casalena borrowed from his dad to start Squarespace
10: Job openings