1stDibs began with one man's trip to the Paris flea market. Michael Bruno loved the vintage furniture there and wanted to put the best dealers' stock online. He started a listings site in 2000, then moved it to New York and signed up American sellers. Over two decades it became the place designers went for a Danish sideboard or an Art Deco lamp. Each month in 2020 buyers and sellers traded more than 36,000 messages. It filed for its IPO in May 2021.

First Look for the Trade

The name plays on "first dibs," the right to claim something before anyone else. Bruno built 1stDibs to give buyers that early look at the best dealers' stock. Over time the site became a marketplace that took a commission on each sale. Its sellers were mostly small businesses, and many called 1stDibs their main sales channel. David Rosenblatt, a former Google executive, became CEO and expanded into art, jewelry, and fashion.

Twenty Dollars a Share

1stDibs priced its IPO at $20 a share in June 2021 and began trading on Nasdaq as DIBS. The pandemic home boom faded soon after, and high-end furniture sales slowed with the housing market. Revenue fell 13 percent in 2023 to $84.7 million, and the company cut costs. In 2025 it posted its first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA as a public company. 1stDibs still trades on Nasdaq as DIBS.

Cover: Brocanteurs rue de Rocher, Hippolyte Bayard. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for secondhand dealers on a Paris street (the flea market).