College student from Solana Beach launches new app

A college student from Solana Beach and his friend released an app to give businesses another avenue to sell their products during the COVID-19 pandemic, with public health restrictions causing hardships for stores across the nation.

The app, Compyle, was designed to be a virtual farmers market that allows customers to shop from the safety of their own homes, with many of them avoiding in-person trips to the store.

“Basically we wanted to find ways to support all the small businesses around us due to the lockdown,” said Matthew Cheung, 20, who graduated from Pacific Ridge School and now attends Loyola Marymount University. “So we created an online marketplace that features all local products from all around San Diego and the rest of California, where people can support them without having to go out.”

Cheung added that the app, which he created with his friend Andrew Duca, launched about one month ago, aiming it mostly at friends and family.

Andrew Duca

(Courtesy)

“And now we’re pushing it out to more of the public and getting more people on the app through marketing, through social media and talking with a bunch of the small businesses around California now to get them on the app as well,” Cheung said.

The concept of a virtual farmers market came from his experience growing up on his grandfather’s Lakeside farm.

“Me growing up there, seeing the hustle of being a farmer and seeing how much hard work it is to get your product out there and market it is one of the problems Compyle would solve, which is marketing and getting more people to discover your product as a small business,” Cheung said.

Cheung also said he wants to expand the app throughout the United States, and wants to offer more products. There are currently hundreds of products available for purchase on the Compyle app, which is available through smartphone app stores.

“For now we just want to reach out to the rest of California and get more users from California on the app and then eventually long-term we want to spread to other states and feature more products,” Cheung said. “Right now we only feature food and beverage products, but we want to expand to clothing and electronics and all those other things.”

There are also “social discounts” available when ordering items in bulk with friends.

“We really want to push supporting small businesses but also the whole aspect of community commerce,” Cheung said.

For more information, visit compyle.app.