How I Built a SaaS Product Around a Niche Trade Show Ecosystem: Lessons from the PCGS Irvine Show 2025

Let me tell you something: SaaS doesn’t always start with a flashy idea. Sometimes, it starts with a tweet, a hunch, and a dying trade show. I built my SaaS product not in a lab or a funded startup, but by walking the aisles of the PCGS Irvine CA Show Oct 22-24, 2025, talking to dealers, and watching organizers drown in spreadsheets. This is how I turned a collapsing legacy event ecosystem into a profitable niche SaaS—bootstrapped, fast, and built for real people doing real work.

For years, I’d been obsessed with the collectibles space—coins, watches, vintage art. The drama, the drama, the $50K deals scribbled on napkins. But one thing bugged me: why were these high-value transactions still stuck in an analog world? Then came the rumor: “The Long Beach show is going bye-bye.” I checked. No dates for 2025. Silence. And then, a whisper: PCGS was launching a new Irvine Show as a “let’s see if this works” experiment.

When Trade Shows Fade, SaaS Begins

Most people saw failure. I saw a gap. Legacy events like Long Beach were dying—not because people didn’t want to trade, but because organizers couldn’t adapt. They relied on email, paper forms, and manual check-ins. Meanwhile, new groups like GACC and IMEX were testing hybrid models, but still using Eventbrite and Google Sheets. That’s when it hit me: nobody was building software for this kind of event.

Collectible trade shows aren’t concerts or conferences. They’re ecosystems—dealers, collectors, graders, parking attendants, compliance officers. And the tech? A mess. The opportunity? Build the digital backbone that makes these events function.

Why This Niche Just Works

• High stakes: $10k+ booths, $500+ attendees—no room for mistakes
• Analog chaos: emails, spreadsheets, hand-scanned tickets
• Emotional loyalty: people love these events—stickiness is real
• Ignored by big platforms: Eventbrite doesn’t understand “booth adjacency” or “grading queue priority”

So I didn’t build a generic event app. I built a ShowOps platform—focused on the nuts and bolts: booth sales, dealer onboarding, compliance, parking, and real-time visibility. Yes, parking. More on that later.

Tech Stack: Built for Speed, Not Show

Bootstrapped means no runway. No team. Just me, my laptop, and a deadline. I needed a stack that let me ship fast, fix faster, and scale without breaking the bank.

Frontend: React + Vite—Because Slowness Kills Trust

Dealers aren’t patient. Organizers need to make decisions in seconds. So I built the admin dashboard and dealer portal with React and Vite. The goal: load in under 1.5 seconds—even on a shaky mobile network at the show floor.


// Example: Dynamic booth map renderer
const BoothMap = ({ booths }) => (
{'<'}BoothContainer{\n booths.map(booth => (
{'<'}BoothTile{ key={booth.id} status={booth.status} onSelect={() => handleBoothSelect(booth)}
/{'>'}
))
/{'>'}
);


This lets organizers drag, drop, and sell booths in real time—no spreadsheets, no lag.

Backend: Firebase—But Not the Way You Think

I started with Firebase for Auth, Realtime Database, and Cloud Functions. It got me a working prototype in three weeks. But I didn’t want to get locked in. So I added a GraphQL layer (Apollo Server) on top. Now, when I expand to mobile apps or third-party tools, the API is ready—without rewriting everything.

Hosting: Vercel + GitHub Actions—Zero Ops

Every pull request gets a preview. Merge to main? Auto-deploy. No DevOps hires. No midnight outages. Just fast, reliable releases.

Analytics: PostHog, Not Google—Because Privacy Matters

At a coin show, you don’t need to track “page views.” You need to know: “Did a dealer start parking validation but bail before paying?” I used self-hosted PostHog on a $10 droplet. It tracks specific flows—like ticket redemption or booth upgrades—without selling data. Organizers love it.

MVP: 3 Features That Made People Pay Attention

I built the MVP in six weeks. Not “feature-complete.” Just “enough to prove it works.” These three features? They got the first organizers to say, “Yes, please.”

1. Dynamic Booth Map & Real-Time Sales

Dealers hate guessing. Is their booth next to the grading counter? Near high foot traffic? I built an interactive map where organizers can set prices, assign booths, and watch sales update live. Dealers get a “Booth Match Score”—based on location, past sales, and show history. One dealer told me: “I’d pay just for this.”

2. Parking Validation Engine—Seriously, It’s a Big Deal

At the Irvine show, parking is $55/day. Dealers hate it. Organizers hate managing it. I built a module where dealers scan a QR code at the gate, validate their parking, and get a discount—capped by the organizer. Syncs with venue APIs. One organizer said: “This could save us $10k in admin time every show.”

3. “Show Pulse” Dashboard—Live Data, Real Decisions

Built with Recharts, this dashboard pulls live data: check-ins, booth sales, ticket scans, even average time per aisle. At the PCGS Irvine show, we’re testing a live heatmap of attendee density. Organizers can see which areas are packed and which need promotion—in real time.

Getting to Market: Partner, Don’t Peddle

I didn’t cold-call 500 organizers. I reached out to GACC and IMEX—the ones who actually care about the community. I didn’t pitch a SaaS. I pitched a partnership: “Let me handle the tech. You focus on the people.”

I offered:

• Free MVP for their next show

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• 5% revenue share if they refer another organizer

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• Co-branded mobile check-in app—branded with their logo, powered by my backend

GACC signed on for their 2025 Buena Park show. IMEX is testing the parking module for Nashville. No sales team. Just a conversation, a shared problem, and a solution.

Bootstrapped? Yes. Cheap? Also Yes.

Here’s what I spent in the first three months:

• Domain & SSL: $24

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• Firebase (3 months): $180

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• Vercel Pro: $20

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• PostHog Droplet: $10/mo

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• Legal (DBA, LLC): $500
• UI Kit (Tailwind UI): $200

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• Ads (LinkedIn, Reddit): $1,200
• Misc (fonts, icons): $100
• Total: $3,504

I coded nights and weekends. Used Figma for mockups. Loom for demos. Sent cold emails to 50 organizers. Seven replied. Three became pilot customers. That’s traction.

Roadmap: From Booths to the Collector OS

We’re not just building an event tool. We’re building the operating system for physical collectible markets.

Phase 1: ShowOps – Booth sales, check-in, parking, dashboards (launched).

Phase 2: Dealer CRM – Track inventory, past sales, customer notes (coming Q1 2025).

Phase 3: Collector Match – AI-powered booth recommendations based on buying history (Q3 2025).

Phase 4: Marketplace API – Let dealers list items at shows, with escrow and shipping (2026).

This is where digital meets physical—where a dealer can scan a booth, see a collector’s past purchases, and offer a perfect match—on the spot.

Your SaaS Is Waiting in a Convention Center

The Long Beach show isn’t gone. It’s evolving. The Irvine show isn’t a fluke. It’s a signal.

As a SaaS founder, don’t wait for the future. Find the friction. The parking fee. The manual check-in. The fear of missing a bid. The dread of “urining off stakeholders.” Turn those into features.

My takeaways:

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• Dying industries are goldmines—they’re desperate for change.

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• Modern stacks let you move fast—no need for legacy tech or big teams.

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• Partner with organizers, not just users—they’re your distribution channel.
• Small pain points matter—parking validation is a feature, not a joke.
• Bootstrapping isn’t a limitation—it’s your edge.

The next big SaaS won’t come from a VC pitch. It’ll come from a dealer’s complaint, a parking line, a missing booth. Go find it. Go build it.

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