About Fanfare
Overview for partners, customers, and investors.
Game-Day Fare, Elevated.
No Lines, More Wins.
What Fanfare is
Fanfare is the operating system for volunteer-run school concessions — not just another ordering app.
It brings together smart ambient food lockers, mobile ordering, vendor-prepped menus, planning and game-night ops, and predictive prep so a full night can run on one shared playbook.
Why schools and boosters need it
- Fans skip the line — or skip buying. Long concession lines mean missing the game. Many walk away empty-handed.
- Volunteer help is scarce — and often untrained for food service. Parents sign up to help; they are not professional cooks or food handlers. Asking them to grill under pressure is a recruiting and safety problem.
- Guessing the order burns money. Over-order perishables and you throw food (and margin) away. Under-order and you sell out early.
- Game night is chaos without a shared playbook. Who is signed in? What is Ready? Which locker? What is below par? Without one system, the stand runs on texts, memory, and luck.
Fanfare turns that into a clear desk: plan before the game, run during the game, learn after the game.
What is inside
Ops & fulfillment
- Ambient smart food lockers — fans pick up without missing the play
- Mobile order from the seat, plus walk-up / window
- One Staff queue: Incoming → In Progress → Ready (locker load or seat delivery)
- Merchandise fulfilled the same way as food (no separate track)
- Tap-to-pay path at checkout (prototype)
Planning (per game)
- Game workspace with left nav: projections → menu + inventory → ordering advice → purchase orders → staffing → final checklist
- Predictive prep: weather, competing events, and tags → attendance band, waste risk, and order cues
- Smart Ordering Advisor and vendor purchase orders
- Multi-stand menus and full school extracurricular schedule (not Friday football only)
- Directories always available: Master Roster, Menu, Inventory, Vendors, Schools
People
- Master volunteer roster with recruit by email/text ("I'll Volunteer")
- Game staffing: Committed vs Alternates, suggested headcount, still needed, Bail Rate
- End-of-night ratings — participants only, quick 1–10
- Clear roles: Manager plans and owns POs; Lead / volunteers run the floor; Fans just order
Money & learning
- Tonight's KPIs: gross margin, spend per attendee, attendance vs plan, inventory move risk → flash-sale recommendations
- Flash sales: one product per sale; tonight-only / slow movers recommended when the crowd is soft
- Season Insights and Night Close history so next season is not a blank slate
How a night runs
- Before the game — Manager works the game desk: run analysis, confirm menu against stock (including merch), review ordering advice, send POs, staff the roster, finish the checklist.
- During the game — Fans order and prepay. Staff works the queue. Managers watch Tonight's KPIs and can open a flash sale when attendance lags.
- After the game — Night Close rolls up margin, spend per head, and what moved — so the next order gets smarter.
A peek at the math
Same ideas the product uses for projections and Tonight's KPIs. Numbers stay school- and night-scoped.
1. Predicted attendance
predictedAtt ≈ schoolBaseline × home/away × tagDrivers × weather
Plain terms: Start from this school's typical crowd for the sport. Adjust for home vs away, big tags (rivalry, homecoming — extras stack carefully so hype is not double-counted), and weather. Result is a range — plan to the mid, watch the edges.
2. Item par / order suggestion
suggestedQty ≈ f(predictedAtt, itemShare, onHand, par) perishableCap ≈ basePar × 1.15 when weather or cold-start risk is high
Plain terms: How many of this item for a crowd this size? Use what is on the shelf, aim toward par, and cap perishables when rain or thin history would push waste. Packaged drinks can flex more than tonight-only food.
3. Gross margin (tonight)
lineMargin$ = qtySold × (effectiveSell − unitCost) grossMargin$ = Σ lineMargin$ (food + optional merch) grossMargin% = grossMargin$ ÷ sales$
Plain terms: Profit on what sold — sell price minus vendor cost. Flash deals use the sale price. Athletics tickets and scholarship add-ons stay out of concession margin.
4. Spend per attendee
spendPerAttendee$ = (food$ [+ merch$]) ÷ liveAttendance
Plain terms: Average dollars per person in the stands — not per ticket stub. Tickets sold and gate attendance stay labeled separately.
5. Attendance vs expected → inventory move risk
attendanceGap% = (liveAttendance − expectedAtt) ÷ expectedAtt
| Gap | Move risk | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| About on plan (≥ −10%) | Low | Stay the course |
| −10% to −25% | Medium | Consider a flash by mid-game |
| Worse than −25% | High | Start flash sales earlier |
Plain terms: Soft crowd → food sits. The cue is an advisor hint — it never auto-starts a sale. Managers decide.
6. Waste risk (planning, days before)
wasteRisk = f(predictedAtt band, perishable mix, weather, onHand vs par)
Plain terms: Before kickoff, Low / Med / High on "are we likely to throw food away?" Distinct from game-night move risk.
Why this model matters
- Don't make volunteers into short-order cooks. Vendor-prepped food + lockers means stock, handoff, and hospitality — skills parents can learn in a shift.
- Replace gut-feel ordering with a shared forecast that improves as nights close.
- Protect margin, not just revenue — gross margin and spend/head first.
- One playbook for the whole night — Fan, Staff, and Manager see the same orders, lockers, and roster.
- Honest about what is real. Where the prototype still simulates payments, locker doors, or gate counts, it says Simulated.
Closing
Fanfare exists so more fans buy, more volunteers show up, and more booster dollars stay in the program — without asking parents to run a restaurant under the bleachers.