Today marks an exciting milestone for The Expert: we've been acquired by Havenly Brands, joining their portfolio of design-forward brands.

It's a big moment for our team—and a meaningful step toward building more tools, access, and support to serve designers even better. Since launching The Expert in 2020, our mission has always been to champion the creative voices driving the home industry.

We started with consultations, building a roster of the most exciting interior designers—from industry titans to emerging talent—and offering fractional access to their expertise for the first time. From the beginning, the response from both designers and clients was overwhelming. We knew we were onto something.

Our next frontier was e-commerce, quickly embraced by the design community and brought to life through our trade program. What began as a curated marketplace of industry-loved brands has grown into a go-to resource for designers everywhere.

Along the way, we've connected with thousands of trade members, learned their pain points firsthand, and focused on solving them brick by brick.

Over the past year, we launched our Price Match Promise, so trade members can shop confidently knowing they'll get the same designer discount they would going direct—while checking out across hundreds of brands in one cart. We introduced a quote tool to make large and custom orders easier to manage. We expanded our brand and vintage offerings to better serve different budgets, timelines, and design briefs. And we rolled out new filters and favorites that cut down sourcing time and make it easier to get back to designing.

All of this is to say: we're just getting started!

We're incredibly proud of what we've built as an independent company. But to fully realize our ambitions of becoming the definitive platform for interior designers, we knew we needed greater resources.

We first met Lee Mayer, CEO of Havenly Brands in 2025, and it was immediately clear how complementary our companies were. Havenly brings scale, infrastructure, and proprietary technology. The Expert brings cultural credibility, taste leadership, and deep relationships within the trade community. Together, we believe this team is uniquely positioned to make industry-defining improvements to the way designers work.

Today, we celebrate five years of building independently—and extend our sincere gratitude to the Experts, trade members, and brand partners who helped us get here. Tomorrow, we get back to work on what matters most: bringing together the best Experts, brands, trade benefits, and post-sale service the industry has to offer, all powered by technology that actually makes a difference.

Looking Ahead

This acquisition positions us to build the operating backbone for design firms today: supporting creativity, reducing operational friction, and honoring what matters most: the designer's craft.

In Spring 2026, we plan to unveil a significant new, designer-first offering that brings sourcing, technology, and services together in a way the industry hasn't seen before. Thanks for building with us—we can't wait to show you what's next.