Weebly is a platform for e-commerce, websites and integrated marketing for creative entrepreneurs and small business owners. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and currently has more than 50 million customers around the world. Weebly was founded by Chief Executive Officer David Rusenko, Chris Fanini Chief Technology Officer, and Dan Veltri Chief Product Officer.
David Rusenko, Chris Fanini, and Dan Veltri co-founded Weebly in 2006. Rusenko and Fanini both attended the College of Information Science and Technology at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) while Veltri attended the University’s Smeal College of Business. The three founders were 22-year-old students at Penn State when they founded the company. At the time, Penn State required to maintain an Internet portfolio, they are built on this idea and created software that makes it easy for anyone to build a personal website. Formal development of Weebly began in January 2006 and the invitational beta release was announced in June 2006; The official private-beta launched in September 2006. In January 2007, Weebly was selected for Y Combinator’s winter startup program in Silicon Valley, California This selection represents the time that Rusenko, Veltri and Fanini were working on Weebly full-time. In March 2007, Weebly re-launched with its characteristic “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” editing interface. Also in 2007, Weebly Raised US $ 650,000, Ron Conway, Steve Anderson, Mike Maples, and Paul Buchheit. In 2008 Weebly added “Pro” accounts and Google AdSense monetization features, Google Chrome and Safari. Weebly achieved one million users in 2008 and released a statement announcing that it had become profitable. During its initial startup years, we commented on this functionality. In 2011, Weebly Raised from Sequoia Capital and added Roelof Botha to its Board of Directors. In April 2014, Weebly Raised $ 35 million in Series C funding from existing partner Sequoia Capital and Tencent Holdings Ltd. The funds will be used to expand into new markets, growth in research and development, and drive Weebly’s mission of empowering people to pursue their passion. Rusenko stated in August 2013 that the company has signed a lease for a warehouse in San Francisco, based on an expectation of ongoing growth. The new office will house the majority of a global team of 600 employees in 2014 when it moves into the property. As of August 25, 2013, Weebly had 80 employees and was based in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. In October 2015 it was announced that Berlin office would open in late 2015 / early 2016 to offer European-based support and marketing. In April 2016, Weebly integrated JotForm software on its services. In 2016, Weebly began to focus on its ecommerce offering Weebly 4 and Weebly Promote, an integrated marketing tool built into the platform. As more and more sellers, the company is becoming more focused on the marketplace, the company is becoming more and more integrated with Facebook. , integrated email marketing and lead capture, abandoned cart features, the release of Mobile 5.0 to help sellers run their store from anywhere and deep integrations with Square, the payment processing company. In early 2018, co-founder Dan Veltri left the company to pursue other interests. In January of 2018, Weebly hired its first VP of Brand, Alexis Contos, and was appointed the first time the 12 person executive team was 50% women and 50% men. On April 26, 2018, Square announced that it will acquire $ 365 million in cash and stock.
Weebly’s website creator uses a simple widget-based website builder that operates in the web browser. All the site elements are drag-and-drop, and it automatically generates a mobile version of each website. Storage is unlimited, but the service restricts individual file sizes. Consumers are given the option to have any url ending in .weebly.com, .com, .net, .org, .co, .info, or .us. (example.weebly.com) Android and iPhone apps are available that allow users to monitor their website traffic statistics, update blog posts and respond to comments, and add or update products if the user has an e-commerce online store. Basic features for blogging and e-Commerce are supported by PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net. Users can choose to include advertisements in their pages, and visitor statistics can be tracked through an in-house tracking tool or Google Analytics. A new version was released on October 1, 2015. Named Weebly Carbon, it enabled users to add plugins to their websites among other features.
Weebly co-sponsored the “PSUhackathon.” The hackathon was hosted by Penn State (Pennsylvania State University) in April 2012. Rusenko and Fanini, who are both alumni of the College of Information Science and Technology, spoke at and judged the event.
TIME Magazine listed Weebly among the 50 Best Websites of 2007. Weebly has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Newsweek. It was featured on the BBC in February 2008. Google Chrome featured Weebly in the Utilities section of the Chrome web store. Weebly was one of the featured apps in the Chrome web store’s launch. Vikitech, Business Insider, and InGeek have been featured as one of the best Google Chrome apps. David Rusenko, Weebly’s CEO and co-founder, earned a spot in Forbes 2011 “30 Under 30” list.
In December 2014, the Indian government blocked Weebly in India, due to fears that ISIS propaganda was being spread through the site. On December 31, the site was again made available throughout India.