What just happened? Squarespace, the website-building, hosting, and domain registration company that's been around for almost 25 years, is laying off 19% of its employees. Its CEO has avoided linking the layoffs to AI – something we've seen many times recently – though he did say that the organization's operational model must "adapt for the modern era."
Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena said in a memo announcing the cuts that the company needed smaller teams, more player-coaches, and a simplified organizational structure. About 300 workers will be let go, with the product and engineering teams most affected.
The CEO emphasized that the layoffs were not an exercise designed to reach a financial target, but a restructuring based on how Squarespace needs to work going forward.
The memo notes that Squarespace's core business has been to allow people to establish an online presence even if the technology made doing so a challenge. But it acknowledges that the tech has changed enormously over the last 12 months.
That part certainly sounds like a nod to AI. Today, someone with little to no tech know-how can type "build me a website with a price list, a photo gallery, and a way for customers to book" into an AI website builder and get a first draft without writing a line of code or understanding how it works.
Squarespace got in on this back in September 2024 with Blueprint AI. The tool asks customers a few questions about their business, what they want their site to do, and the tone they're going for. It then puts together a site with images and copy that customers can edit before publishing.
In May 2024, private equity firm Permira agreed to pay $6.9 billion for Squarespace. By the time the deal closed that October, the price had risen to around $7.2 billion, ending Squarespace's three-year run on the New York Stock Exchange.
AI could have played a part in Squarespace's decision to cut staff, though Casalena didn't say what role, if any, it played. According to Layoffs.fyi, 93,247 tech employees have been laid off due to AI this year. These are layoffs that the companies or press attributed to AI – to fund AI investment, replace humans with AI, or respond to AI-driven market disruption.
Squarespace is the latest veteran web company to announce layoffs. Venerable cloud-storage giant Dropbox said last week that it was cutting 9% of its staff to achieve product and growth priorities.