Availyst

Availyst is a consumer food discovery and delivery management platform based in Philadelphia. Through its mobile app and web platform, users select a category — groceries, restaurants/takeout, convenience, or spirits — and Availyst surfaces the delivery providers available in their area, letting them compare and sort results by the criteria that matter to them at that moment, such as fastest delivery time, lowest fee, price, saved favorites, or custom lists built around attributes like women-owned or minority-owned businesses. The company states the platform returns up to four times more results than major delivery apps by surfacing providers of all sizes, including smaller local operators.

The company positions the product as a neutral search layer over the delivery ecosystem: providers cannot pay for placement at the top of a user's results, so rankings reflect the user's stated search parameters. Alongside the search product, Availyst publishes a blog ("Delivereads") with ordering tips and recipes that link back to the platform for local grocery delivery. Availyst has operated under both Availyst LLC and Availyst, Inc. naming on its website.

The app launched publicly in beta form in November 2021 and is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play, with a version 1 release planned for later in 2022. The company continued to recruit members for a beta test team, offering early access to features in exchange for feedback. Availyst is categorized as a pre-seed stage company with 1–10 employees, founded in 2021.

Founding story

Founder and CEO Mandy Poston, who has roughly 15 years of experience in technology and operations and was the first employee at a language technology startup, grew up around food — working as a waitress through high school and college, with a chef uncle and a butcher grandmother. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her daily question of what to make for dinner became how to obtain dinner. The specific catalyst came during socially distanced drinks with friends who were worried about exposing their new baby to COVID while trying to get groceries; that conversation led Poston to begin building Availyst.

Business model

Availyst operates a consumer-facing food discovery app that aggregates and compares third-party grocery, takeout, convenience and alcohol delivery providers. It explicitly does not sell top placement in search results to providers. Early sign-ups were offered access to all premium features for six months, indicating a premium/paid feature tier alongside free use.

Traction

Launched publicly in beta in November 2021 with the app available on the Apple App Store and Google Play; ongoing beta-team recruitment; selection in July 2022 as one of 12 companies in the Techstars Farm to Fork 2022 cohort, out of an applicant pool from which Techstars typically accepts 1-2%.

Latest developments

In July 2022 Availyst joined the Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator 2022 cohort, a three-month mentorship and business development program sponsored by Cargill and Ecolab that includes a Techstars investment and a closing demo day, with a version 1 product release planned for later that year.