Blog

Introducing Joris Luijke, VP of People

My name is Joris. I recently joined Squarespace as the new VP of People. Before, I worked with Atlassian in Australia for five amazing years.

Working in HR can be incredibly dull if you pick the wrong company. You'd want to work for a place whose entire team is truly devoted to creating something special. Squarespace is one of those rare gems. I remember when Hurricane Sandy smashed into Manhattan, flooding Squarespace’s hosting facility. Without power, running out of backup power, and without access to fuel supplies in the flooded basement, I wouldn’t have blamed Squarespace for throwing in the towel. But the impossible happened: the team got together and kept the service going by carrying buckets of fuel to the 17th floor in the dark for days.

This is a team that truly loves their product and their customers. That's why I joined Squarespace.

Investing $18 million in new tech jobs

2014 will be a big year for Squarespace. We’re looking to double the size of our team in the next 12 months to nearly 400, investing $15 million in new tech jobs in New York City, plus $3 million in Dublin. Finding great new people to join our team is one of our top priorities.

My mission is to preserve the very thing that makes this company special. A company’s culture will inevitably change over time – that's healthy. However, it’s important that our values remain constant, and every decision should be tested against those founding principles.

Our life’s best work

Years from now, we’d like our people to think back on their time at Squarespace as the most inspiring and exciting time of their career, where we got to do some of life’s best work.

This means our people need ample support to explore their skills and work to their strengths. They need supportive mentors and plenty of opportunities to work on intriguing new projects.

My team’s job is to help create the world's best working environment. I’m looking forward to it.