StageMap - Drag-and-Drop Venue Floor Plan Builder for Independent Event Promoters

Every indie concert promoter still sketches seating charts on napkins or pays $300/month for enterprise ticketing tools that assume you run Madison Square Garden. StageMap lets you drag-and-drop a floor plan, assign ticket tiers, and embed a live seat picker on your own site in under 20 minutes. No enterprise sales call required.

𝕏 Post Reddit HN

Difficulty

intermediate

What is it?

Independent promoters running 50-500 person events — comedy nights, local concerts, pop-up dinners — have zero affordable options for visual seat assignment. Eventbrite has no floor plan builder. Seated.com starts at $500/month. So promoters either sell general admission only (leaving money on the table) or cobble together Google Sheets plus a screenshot. StageMap gives them a canvas editor to draw sections, rows, and individual seats, then auto-generates an embeddable seat picker widget with Stripe checkout built in. The promoter pastes one script tag and is done. Why buildable now: Fabric.js and React Flow both handle canvas interactions stably, Stripe Connect handles split payouts to venues, and embeddable checkout is table stakes in April 2026.

Why now?

Stripe Connect's embeddable pricing table and Supabase Realtime row-level locking are both production-stable in April 2026, making a real-time seat lock without a custom websocket server finally feasible solo.

▸Drag-and-drop canvas floor plan builder with section and row tools (Fabric.js)
▸Embeddable seat picker widget generated via one script tag
▸Stripe Connect checkout with per-seat pricing tiers
▸Real-time seat lock to prevent double-booking via Supabase Realtime

Target Audience

Independent event promoters running 50-500 person events, estimated 80,000 in the US alone based on Eventbrite's reported SMB promoter base.

Example Use Case

Maria runs monthly 200-person jazz nights in Austin, builds her floor plan in 15 minutes, embeds the picker on her Squarespace site, and sells tiered seating at $15 general and $45 VIP without touching Eventbrite.

User Stories

▸As an indie concert promoter, I want to draw my venue layout and assign ticket tiers, so that I can sell tiered seating without paying enterprise pricing.
▸As a pop-up dinner organizer, I want an embeddable seat picker for my Squarespace site, so that guests self-assign seats at checkout.
▸As a comedy night host, I want real-time seat locking, so that two buyers never accidentally book the same seat.

Done When

✓Canvas Editor: done when promoter can draw sections, add rows, and label seats without page refresh
✓Embed Widget: done when script tag renders live seat map on external site
✓Stripe Checkout: done when buyer completes payment and seat status updates to booked within 3 seconds
✓Seat Lock: done when two simultaneous buyers cannot both purchase the same seat.

Is it worth building?

$29/month × 100 promoters = $2,900 MRR plus 1% per ticket sold. 100 promoters × 200 tickets × $25 avg = $5,000 in transaction fees. Combined $7,900 MRR at month 4 is realistic with direct outreach.

Unit Economics

CAC: $25 via direct outreach (3 hours at $8/hr equivalent). LTV: $580 (20 months at $29/month). Payback: 1 month. Gross margin: 88%.

Business Model

Per-event fee plus SaaS subscription

Monetization Path

Free tier: 1 event, 50 seats. Pro: $29/month unlimited events. Plus 1% ticket fee on all paid sales.

Revenue Timeline

First dollar: week 3 via first live event ticket sale. $1k MRR: month 2. $5k MRR: month 5. $10k MRR: month 10.

Estimated Monthly Cost

Vercel: $20, Supabase: $25, Stripe fees: ~$50, Resend: $10. Total: ~$105/month at launch.

Profit Potential

Full-time viable at $8k-$15k MRR combining subscription and transaction fees.

Scalability

Add white-label for venues, QR code check-in scanner, and Stripe Connect marketplace for venue-promoter revenue splits.

Success Metrics

Week 2: 10 beta promoters with live events. Month 2: 40 paid plans. Month 3: 85% event renewal rate.

Launch & Validation Plan

Post in 5 Facebook Groups for local event promoters, offer 3 free events in exchange for a 20-minute feedback call, confirm 10 bookings before writing canvas code.

Customer Acquisition Strategy

First customer: DM 30 local promoters found via Eventbrite search offering free setup call and 3 months free. Ongoing: Reddit r/eventplanning, Instagram promoter communities, SEO targeting 'seating chart tool for events'.

What's the competition?

Competition Level

Low

What's the roadmap?

Feature Roadmap

V1 (launch): canvas editor, embed widget, Stripe checkout, real-time seat lock. V2 (month 2-3): QR check-in, discount codes, event analytics. V3 (month 4+): white-label, Stripe Connect marketplace, season passes.

Milestone Plan

Phase 1 (Week 1-2): canvas editor and Supabase schema live, 5 beta promoters building test events. Phase 2 (Week 3-4): embed widget and Stripe live, first real ticket sold. Phase 3 (Month 2): 30 paid promoters, transaction fee revenue confirmed.

How do you build it?

Tech Stack

Next.js, Fabric.js for canvas editor, Stripe Connect, Supabase, Resend — build with Cursor for canvas logic, v0 for dashboard UI, Lovable for landing page.

Suggested Frameworks

Fabric.js, Stripe Connect SDK, Supabase Realtime

Time to Ship

3 weeks

Required Skills

Fabric.js canvas manipulation, Stripe Connect, Next.js API routes, embeddable widget generation.

Resources

Fabric.js docs, Stripe Connect docs, Supabase quickstart, Next.js embed pattern tutorials.

MVP Scope

canvas-editor.tsx, seat-picker-widget.js (embeddable), event-api route, stripe-connect-setup route, supabase schema for events/seats/bookings, landing page, dashboard, embed code generator page.

Core User Journey

Sign up -> build floor plan in canvas -> get embed code -> paste on site -> first ticket sold within 48 hours -> upgrade to Pro.

Architecture Pattern

Promoter builds floor plan in canvas editor -> seat data saved to Supabase -> widget JS generated with event ID -> buyer clicks seat -> Supabase locks seat -> Stripe checkout created -> payment confirmed -> seat status updated -> confirmation email via Resend.

Data Model

User has many Events. Event has one FloorPlan. FloorPlan has many Sections. Section has many Seats. Seat has many Bookings. Booking belongs to one StripePayment.

Integration Points

Stripe Connect for ticket payments and promoter payouts, Supabase for seat state and realtime locking, Resend for confirmation emails, Vercel for widget CDN delivery.

V1 Scope Boundaries

V1 excludes: QR check-in, team accounts, white-label, season ticket subscriptions, mobile app.

Success Definition

A promoter who found StageMap via Google builds a floor plan, embeds it, sells out an event, and renews their plan the following month without any founder involvement.

Challenges

Distribution is the killer — promoters are not searching Product Hunt, they need to be found in Facebook Groups for local event organizers and via cold DMs on Instagram.

Avoid These Pitfalls

Do not build a mobile app before web embed is proven. Do not add complex refund flows in V1 — link to Stripe dashboard. Finding first 10 paying promoters will take 3x longer than building the canvas editor.

Security Requirements

Supabase Auth with Google OAuth, RLS on all seat and booking tables, rate limit 60 req/min per IP, validate seat IDs server-side before checkout creation, GDPR data deletion endpoint for buyer records.

Infrastructure Plan

Vercel for Next.js and widget CDN, Supabase for Postgres and Realtime, GitHub Actions for CI, Sentry for errors, dev/staging/prod environments on Vercel. Total infra: ~$105/month.

Performance Targets

100 DAU at launch, 2,000 req/day. Seat lock API under 200ms. Widget load under 1s. Supabase Realtime for instant seat state sync, no polling.

Go-Live Checklist

☐Security audit complete
☐Payment flow tested end-to-end
☐Sentry error tracking live
☐Vercel monitoring configured
☐Custom domain with SSL set up
☐Privacy policy and terms published
☐5 beta promoters signed off
☐Rollback plan documented
☐ProductHunt and Reddit launch posts drafted.

First Run Experience

How to build it, step by step

1. Run npx create-next-app stagemap. 2. Install fabric, stripe, supabase-js, resend. 3. Create Supabase schema for events, seats, bookings tables with RLS. 4. Build canvas editor page using Fabric.js with section draw and seat drop tools. 5. Create /api/event route to save floor plan JSON to Supabase. 6. Build embeddable seat-picker.js widget that fetches seat state via Supabase. 7. Create Stripe Connect onboarding flow for promoter payouts. 8. Build /api/checkout route to create Stripe session and lock seat in Supabase. 9. Add Resend confirmation email on Stripe webhook. 10. Deploy to Vercel and generate first embed code.

Generated

April 17, 2026

Model

claude-sonnet-4-6

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Disclaimer: Ideas on this site are AI-generated and may contain inaccuracies. Revenue estimates, market demand figures, and financial projections are illustrative assumptions only — not financial advice. Do your own research before making any business or investment decisions. Technology availability, pricing, and market conditions change rapidly; always verify details independently.