Effective date: April 18, 2026
Welcome to Expert Connect. Expert Connect is a direct marketplace where clients can find, book, and pay for video consultations with independent domain experts. Clients choose experts themselves. Expert Connect is not a staffing agency, consulting firm, employer, broker, or agent for either party. We provide the platform for discovery, scheduling, payment, and quality enforcement, but we do not provide the consultation services themselves.
By creating an account, using the platform, booking a consultation, offering consultations, or otherwise using Expert Connect, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, do not use Expert Connect.
Please read these Terms carefully. They contain a mandatory arbitration provision and a class action waiver in Section 21 that affect your legal rights.
You must be at least 18 years old to use Expert Connect. By using the platform, you represent that the information you provide is accurate, complete, and kept up to date. You may sign up using an email address and password or through Google single sign-on, both managed by our authentication provider, Clerk. Email signups require one-time passcode verification.
Each person may maintain only one account. Accounts are non-transferable. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.
You may not impersonate another person, create accounts using false information, or use the platform in a way that misrepresents your identity, professional background, company affiliation, or authority to act on behalf of an organization.
You may not share your account with anyone else. We may suspend or terminate accounts that present security risks, contain inaccurate information, or violate these Terms. You must notify us immediately at support@expert-connect.co if you suspect unauthorized access.
Clients can browse expert profiles, create projects, send booking requests, propose times, and pay for consultations. Experts can review requests, answer screening questions where required, accept or decline requests, propose meeting times, and deliver consultations through the platform's video tools.
A consultation generally moves through these stages: pending, scheduling, scheduled, processing, completed, cancelled, disputed, or rejected. A booking is not confirmed until a time is accepted and payment authorization is successfully placed. Before an expert can propose times, the expert may be required to answer any screening questions attached to the client's project. Either party may decline or withdraw before a time is confirmed, with no penalty and no charge.
Consultations are delivered by video through Daily.co directly in your browser — no software download is required. Video rooms are created when a time is accepted and expire after the scheduled end time.
After a consultation ends, there is a 24-hour processing window before payment is transferred to the expert. During this window, clients may raise a dispute. After the processing window closes without dispute, the consultation is marked complete and the expert is paid.
If you use Expert Connect as an expert, you agree to:
Experts are independent providers. Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, partnership, joint venture, or fiduciary relationship between Expert Connect and any expert.
If you use Expert Connect as a client, you agree to:
Clients are responsible for deciding whether an expert is suitable for their needs. Expert Connect does not recommend, guarantee, or endorse any particular expert.
Expert Connect may review expert profiles before making them visible on the platform. Verification may include review of identity and professional background information, such as public profile information or other onboarding materials. Expert profiles must meet our publish requirements, including a completed onboarding profile, approved verification status, at least one work history entry, and at least one availability rule.
Verified does not mean endorsed. Verification confirms that we reviewed identity and professional background information provided to us. It does not guarantee qualifications, performance, accuracy, availability, or the outcome of any consultation.
We may use quality signals such as ratings, reports, attendance history, reschedule patterns, and other trust and safety indicators to rank, limit, suspend, or remove accounts.
Experts keep 100% of the hourly rate they set on the platform. Expert Connect charges the client a separate 25% platform service fee on top of the expert's rate, plus applicable payment processing fees charged by our payment provider.
Billing rules are as follows:
All billing is calculated in cents. We may apply minimum processing fee rules as required by our payment provider.
All payments are processed through Stripe. Clients must keep a valid payment method on file. When a booking is being finalized, Expert Connect may place an authorization hold using Stripe before funds are captured.
After a consultation ends, there is a 24-hour processing window before payout is released to the expert. During that period, payment is held for dispute review. Payment authorization holds expire after 7 days. If a hold is approaching expiry, we may cancel and re-authorize the same amount to preserve the booking.
Client rescheduling. A client may reschedule more than 1 hour before the scheduled start time at no charge. In that case, the existing payment authorization is voided and a new authorization is placed for the rescheduled session. If the client requests to reschedule less than 1 hour before the scheduled start time, the expert may choose either to accept new times at no cost or to apply a late-reschedule fee of 50% of the original consultation cost.
Expert rescheduling. If an expert reschedules:
No-shows. If an expert does not appear and is treated as a no-show, the client receives a full refund and the expert's account is temporarily suspended pending review. Affected experts may contact support@expert-connect.co to request a review of the suspension.
Decline or withdraw before scheduling. Before a time is confirmed, either party may decline or withdraw the request without completing the booking. No charge is due.
Clients should raise disputes within 24 hours after a consultation is completed. That is the default dispute window used by the platform. In exceptional circumstances, clients may submit a late dispute up to 7 days after the consultation by contacting support@expert-connect.co.
Expert Connect will review disputes and aims to resolve them within 48 hours. After review, Expert Connect may decide one of the following outcomes:
During the dispute review period, payment is frozen and will not be released to either party until a resolution is reached. We may also issue a quality-related strike to an expert when appropriate. Our dispute decisions are made in our reasonable discretion based on the information available to us.
You may not use Expert Connect to:
If we receive a report involving possible material non-public information or circumvention, we may immediately hide or suspend the account while we review the matter. Expert Connect does not monitor live consultation content, but we take action on reports. We may cooperate with law enforcement or regulatory authorities when legally required.
Mutual confidentiality. By using Expert Connect, both clients and experts agree to keep consultation content confidential and not disclose proprietary or confidential information shared during a session without the other party's consent, unless disclosure is required by law. This obligation survives termination of your account.
Data isolation. Consultation content is intended to stay between the client and the expert involved in that booking. Expert Connect does not share consultation content with other clients, does not aggregate it into research products, does not resell it, and does not use it to train AI models.
User responsibility. Each user is responsible for deciding what information to share during a consultation. Expert Connect does not monitor live consultation content and is not responsible for information voluntarily disclosed by users during a session.
Expert Connect does not currently record or transcribe consultations by default. No audio, video, or text content from your calls is stored on our servers or by our video provider.
We may add recording or transcription features in the future. If we do, both parties will be notified before any recording begins for each consultation. By using the platform, you agree that consultations may be recorded or transcribed in the future if Expert Connect provides notice before recording starts. Your continued participation in a session after notice will constitute consent to that recording or transcription. You may withdraw consent by leaving the session before recording begins.
Each party retains ownership of its own intellectual property, materials, data, content, trademarks, and other proprietary rights. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of a client's materials to an expert, or an expert's materials to a client.
You grant Expert Connect only the limited rights needed to host, display, process, and operate content you submit to the platform for the purpose of providing the service. This includes profile data, scheduling details, booking information, and communications necessary to operate the marketplace. This license terminates when you remove the content or delete your account.
Your use of Expert Connect is also subject to our Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we share it with service providers, and what choices and rights you may have.
Expert Connect is a marketplace platform only. We do not provide consulting services, legal advice, investment advice, employment services, or staffing services. We do not guarantee that any expert is accurate, qualified, available, or suitable for your needs. We do not guarantee any business, investment, legal, strategic, or commercial outcome from a consultation.
The platform may experience downtime, delays, or interruptions. Consultations depend on third-party systems such as payment processors, video infrastructure, email providers, and internet connectivity. Expert Connect is not responsible for failures or limitations of third-party services.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the platform and all services are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Expert Connect and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and reasonable expenses (including attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Expert Connect will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenues, goodwill, data, or business opportunities arising from or related to your use of the platform.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Expert Connect's total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the platform will not exceed the greater of: the total amount of platform fees paid by you to Expert Connect in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or $100.
Please read this section carefully. It affects how disputes are resolved.
Mandatory arbitration. Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, your use of Expert Connect, or the services offered through the platform will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its applicable rules, rather than in court. The arbitration shall take place in New York, New York, or at another mutually agreed location. The arbitrator's decision is final and binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Small claims exception. Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court if the claim qualifies and seeks less than $10,000.
Class action waiver. You and Expert Connect agree that any proceeding will be conducted only on an individual basis. Neither you nor Expert Connect may bring a claim as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action, collective action, representative action, or class-wide arbitration. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any form of class or representative proceeding.
Severability of waiver. If any part of this class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, then that claim must be severed and may proceed in court only to that extent, while the remainder of this arbitration agreement will continue to apply.
Opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration provision by sending written notice to support@expert-connect.co within 30 days of first agreeing to these Terms. Your notice must include your name, account email address, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, disputes will be resolved in the courts specified in Section 22.
These Terms and any dispute related to them are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict of laws principles, except to the extent federal law governs arbitration or other issues. To the extent that litigation is permitted under these Terms, you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in New York, New York.
We may suspend, limit, or terminate access to Expert Connect if we believe you violated these Terms, created legal or trust and safety risk, engaged in prohibited conduct, or harmed other users or the platform.
You may close your account at any time through your account settings or by contacting support@expert-connect.co. If you request account deletion, your profile is deactivated immediately. Personal data will be permanently purged within 30 days, except where retention is required for legal, financial, tax, dispute, safety, fraud-prevention, or recordkeeping purposes. We may retain transaction records, name snapshots connected to past consultations, and trust and safety records where needed.
Suspension or termination does not affect obligations under the following sections, which survive: Section 14 (Confidentiality), Section 19 (Indemnification), Section 20 (Limitation of liability), Section 21 (Arbitration and class action waiver), and Section 22 (Governing law).
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email or through a notice on the platform at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of Expert Connect after the updated Terms take effect means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the platform and close your account.
Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Expert Connect regarding your use of the platform.
Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our prior written consent. Expert Connect may assign its rights and obligations under these Terms without restriction.
If you have questions about these Terms, or if you need to raise a late dispute within the permitted support window, contact us at:
Expert Connect
Email: support@expert-connect.co