According to Squarespace Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena “The things that made you successful in the past, don’t always make you successful in the future.” The web designer launched Squarespace in 2003, in his dorm room, where he was an engineering student. The impetus: his dismay with available CMS systems.  He did get his degree – and a $30k loan from his father to bring his innovative platform to life.  The company’s last reported earnings were more than $38 million.

Anthony’s story is like so many others, and that lead us to launch The Vindicated, a limited-run series about the deeply satisfying, uniquely human thrill of being proven right, against the odds, no matter the cost. Every day we featured stories of innovators, entrepreneurs, prognosticators, heretics, artists, thinkers, and everyday people whose ideas were initially ignored or dismissed as crazy but ultimately found acceptance, and most importantly, we examined what it takes to survive as an intellectual and creative outcast in a world that’s not quite ready for what you’re selling.

The Vindicated covered everything from rejection letters, mea culpas, and scientific studies, to lament the indignity of the posthumous Pulitzer. In the end, we proved that the craziest ideas are sometimes the best and, we hope, left some deserving subjects feeling a bit more vindicated than when we started.