Dive Brief:

• Squarespace, the SaaS company specializing in website building, named Marcela Martin its new CFO, effective November 1, in a move working towards an IPO. As CFO, Martin will oversee Squarespace's finance and corporate development functions and report to founder and CEO Anthony Casalena.

• Martin has more than 25 years of financial and operations experience at public companies in the tech and media space, most recently as CFO of digital travel ecommerce company, Booking.com.

• "As we prepare for our next phase of growth, it was important for us to find an experienced CFO who not only has the right mix of global tech, digital, and media expertise, but understands our vision," Casalena said in a statement. "Marcela brings all this and more with her impressive leadership experience driving strategic business transformation."

Dive Insight:

Martin led Booking.com’s finance function, overseeing its finance operations, financial systems, financial services, risk management, and corporate development and M&A.

"Squarespace has set itself apart as a modern platform that enables millions of customers to create an impactful and beautiful online presence," Martin said. "I look forward to working with the talented executive team and employees around the world in continuing to scale the company's trajectory."

Previously, she spent three years as CFO, chief administrative officer at National Geographic Partners, and spent 18 years in other leadership positions, including executive vice president of finance and CFO at Fox International Channels.

In recent years, Squarespace has invested in product and engineering, providing website design, ecommerce solutions, appointment scheduling, and marketing tools.

Martin is the latest addition to Squarespace's executive team, joining recent hires Paul Gubbay, previously vice president of design and web at Adobe, as chief product officer, and Mary Good as chief people officer.

The company employs more than 1,200 people across three offices in New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Dublin, Ireland.

"We continue to take all the steps needed if we want to [go public] in the future," Casalena told the Financial Times, adding Squarespace has not yet filed with the SEC to prepare for an IPO, chosen a bank to advise it, or decided whether a direct listing would be preferable to a traditional IPO.

Martin will bring the experience Squarespace needed as "a late-stage private company," Casalena said.

Public company leadership experience was one of Casalena’s requirements in his CFO search, which was conducted entirely online. "For the first time in 17 years, I’ve hired two people without meeting them," Casalena said, referring to Martin and to Gubbay, who started in July.

Squarespace, which Casalena founded in 2003, has about $50 million in primary venture funding, Financial Times said.

"We were cash flow break-even for 14 to 15 years, then started becoming really profitable over the past three years," Casalena told FT, declining to provide figures, but saying the company had seen an 83% year-over-year jump in new ecommerce websites and a 70% increase in use of its scheduling product as many stores began limiting the number of walk-in customers.

Representatives for Martin and for Squarespace did not immediately respond to requests for comment.