Avvay

AVVAY, Inc. operates an online marketplace where photographers, videographers, producers, filmmakers and other creators can find and book locations for shoots, recording sessions, workshops, performances and events. Listings span commercial photo studios, filming locations, event venues, music spaces, galleries and artist studios, performance venues, meeting spaces and workshop spaces, as well as residential and unconventional properties such as mansions, apartments, lofts, trailers, campers, treehouses, gardens, vehicles, barns, industrial kitchens, hotels, abandoned buildings, schools and bars. Users can browse by city and book directly from hosts, and the site also features a directory of creative professionals such as photographers and stylists.

Alongside the marketplace, AVVAY runs a location scouting business positioned as a nationwide service for production professionals. Clients submit an intake form and receive a free, shareable "file pull" of candidate locations drawn from the company's network, including unlisted properties. The in-house scouting team checks availability, negotiates pricing and can handle location agreements, certificates of insurance and permitting in more than 900 U.S. jurisdictions. Property owners can list spaces free of charge, either publicly on the marketplace — with calendar syncing from platforms such as Airbnb — or privately, visible only to AVVAY's team and the productions it pitches.

Founding story

AVVAY was founded in 2016 by Jon Howard, Nick de Partee, Josh Colbert and Nick Dominguez. Howard, a guitarist touring with Paramore who was also producing records, was making a solo album for Paramore's drummer and wanted to record in interesting locations in each city on the road; he found that without knocking on doors or personal connections there was no way to access such places. The founders built AVVAY to solve that problem for themselves and other creatives.

Business model

AVVAY operates a two-sided marketplace connecting location hosts with creative producers, layered with a managed location scouting service. Hosts list properties at no cost and are under no obligation to accept a booking; the scouting service charges producers no upfront or service fees and instead earns a commission from hosts on successful bookings.

Commission taken from hosts on completed location bookings; the scouting service carries no upfront client fees, and permit costs are passed through to the client.

Traction

At the September 2018 seed announcement the marketplace was live in Nashville, Portland, Chicago, Dallas and Houston. The current site lists locations across dozens of U.S. cities and the scouting arm cites production credits including BET+ "American Gangster: Trap Queens," Muse Storytelling, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, Meta CICERO, Dan + Shay, Fitz and the Tantrums, Neighbor.com and Scott's. Residential hosts are said to typically charge $100–$300 per hour for production projects.

Latest developments

The company markets an in-house nationwide location scouting service with permitting support in over 900 U.S. jurisdictions, offered with no upfront fees and monetized through host commissions, alongside an expanded multi-city marketplace and a creative professionals directory.