What Is Laughing Squid?

Laughing Squid is a culture blog that features a daily dose of unique and curious things. It is also a Managed WordPress hosting company. Laughing Squid was founded by Scott Beale in 1995 in San Francisco and is now based in New York City.

For more info, see our FAQ and Wikipedia.

Laughing Squid is made up of two entities: our blog and our hosting services.

Laughing Squid Blog

We launched the Laughing Squid blog in 2003, and it is run by founder Scott Beale, who is the editor-in-chief and primary curator. Scott is joined by his wife, contributing editor Lori Dorn, who now writes the majority of the posts.

Laughing Squid Hosting

Since 1998, we have been providing web hosting services to individuals, artists, and bloggers, with a current focus on Managed WordPress hosting. Hosting is our primary source of revenue, aka the “business” side of Laughing Squid. The revenue generated from our hosting operations helps keep the blog running.

The History of Laughing Squid

Scott Beale founded Laughing Squid on November 16th, 1995, in San Francisco as a film and video production company, producing documentaries on the San Francisco Bay surrealist painter Alonso Smith in 1996 and The Cacophony Society’s Portland Santacon ’96 event in 1997.

In 1996, Laughing Squid launched The Squid List, a San Francisco Bay Area events email list and online calendar, which was decommissioned in 2013.

Initially, Laughing Squid offered publicity and web design services, but then shifted our focus to web hosting in 1998, making it our primary business.

Laughing Squid became an LLC in 2000, with partners John Law and David Klass joining Scott Beale.

In 2003, Laughing Squid launched its blog, relaunching on WordPress in 2005.

Laughing Squid moved its HQ from San Francisco to New York City in 2010.

Here’s the history of the Laughing Squid name and the Laughing Squid Logo.

Here’s press and media coverage that Laughing Squid has had over the years.

Laughing Squid also organized many events during the 1990s and 2000s, including The Tentacle Sessions, a series we produced from February 21, 1999, until December 15, 2002, in San Francisco.

Here are the Laughing Squid Postcards created by some of our favorite artists.

When Laughing Squid started out in San Francisco in 1995, we joined a vibrant and creative local community, which includes events and organizations such as Burning Man, ArtCar Fest, Defenestration, Survival Research Labs, The Cacophony Society, Billboard Liberation Front, Doggie Diner, Power Tool Drag Races, Black Rock Arts Foundation, RoboGames, Santarchy (Santacon), Webzine, BarCamp, Maker Faire, dorkbot San Francisco, How to Destroy the Universe and Hi Fructose Magazine.

Laughing Squid continues to maintain close ties with most of these organizations.