- Client
- Venue Report Card
- Role
- Lead Designer & Full-Stack Developer
- Timeline
- Ongoing product (closed alpha)
- Year
- 2026
- Category
- SaaS Platform
Overview
Venue Report Card is a touring-industry product: grade live-music venues, share reports, and plan tours. The product is Expo/RN Web with Mapbox, Firebase, and Stripe subscriptions. Org limits in config: 25 members per org, 3 orgs per user. Production is venuereportcard.com (Firebase venue-report-card); staging is venuereportcard-staging.web.app.
Why
Touring artists and crew still advance shows blind. Venue websites go stale, specs live in DMs, and there is no RateMyProfessor for rooms — let alone a tour map with hotels and day sheets. Venue Report Card exists so a grade, a report, and a route can live in one product.
Config caps (25 members per org, 3 orgs per user) and a waitlist keep launch a controlled alpha. That is relevant to any marketplace that has to stay useful in the free tier without melting ops.
The challenge
Touring artists and crew still advance shows blind. Specs go stale, load-in and hospitality live in group chats, and there is no RateMyProfessor for rooms — let alone a tour map with hotels and day sheets.
What made it hard
- Venue websites go stale; specs live in DMs.
- Touring needs maps, mileage, hotels, and day sheets — not only a review score.
- Launch had to stay a controlled alpha with a useful free tier.
Approach
We architected venue profiles and A–F grading, community reports, a Mapbox tour planner, Gear Swap, calendar, subscriptions, and admin (CSV import, waitlist). Feature flags keep staging and production independent.
Process
- Venue graph: Profiles, grades, reports, moderation.
- Tour planner: Routing, weather, POIs, exportable day sheets.
- Business layer: Stripe subscriptions, plans, admin ops, waitlist.
What we built
- Venue grading: A–F scores and subcategory ratings with community reports.
- Tour planner: Mapbox routing, drag-and-drop days, mileage/hotel estimates, weather, POIs, day sheets.
- Community + Gear Swap: Posts and gear exchange so the product is a scene, not a spreadsheet.
- Plans + admin: Subscriptions, waitlist, CSV import, org/profile admin.
- Shared tours + calendar: Shared tour links, day-share calendar, guest lists — touring logistics that leave the private map.
- Mutual Aid Fund: Community support sits next to Gear Swap so the scene has more than a score and a merch pile.
How it was built
Expo / React Native Web with Mapbox (`@rnmapbox/maps`, Mapbox GL Draw), Turf, TipTap, and Firebase. Venue profiles carry A–F grading and subcategory ratings plus community reports. The tour planner is Mapbox routing with drag-and-drop days, mileage and hotel estimates, weather, POIs, and exportable day sheets.
Community posts, Gear Swap, Mutual Aid Fund, shared tours, calendar/day share, and guest lists make it a scene and a logistics desk. Stripe handles subscriptions in the web app. Admin covers CSV import, waitlist, and org/profile tools. Feature flags keep staging (venuereportcard-staging.web.app) and production (venue-report-card.web.app) independent.
Stack
- Expo / RN Web: v1.5.x web platform
- Firebase: Auth, Firestore, Functions, Hosting
- Mapbox: Tour planner
- Stripe: Checkout and subscription management
Outcomes
- Live: venuereportcard.com
- Tour planner: Mapbox routing + day sheets
- Reports: Community venue grades
- Stripe: Subscriptions
Wins
- A–F venue grades and community reports on a live Expo web platform at venuereportcard.com.
- Mapbox tour planner with routing, day sheets, weather, and POIs.
- Gear Swap, Mutual Aid Fund, shared tours, and calendar so the product is more than a score.
- Stripe subscriptions; admin CSV import and waitlist.
Hard parts
- Stale specs: Venue sites and group chats were the source of truth. Profiles and reports had to replace tribal knowledge.
- Touring is logistics: A grade without a map, hotels, and day sheets is a blog. The planner had to be a working tool.
- Controlled launch: Org limits, waitlist, and feature flags so alpha stays useful without an unbounded community.
Services
- Expo Web + React Native Web
- Firebase Auth, Firestore & Cloud Functions
- Mapbox Tour Planner (routing, weather, POI)
- Stripe Subscription Billing ($6/mo Premium)
- AI Community Bio Search (OpenAI)
- Admin Ops Console (CSV import, waitlist, POI seeding)
- Feature-Flag Staged Rollouts