Ahead of its plans to fully launch in time for the next football season, a local startup is getting new digs.
Aided by grant funding through the McKinney Economic Development Corporation’s Innovation Fund, high school fundraising solutions startup ConcessionTeams relocated its three-person team from Plano to the Common Desk space near downtown McKinney last month. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We're the team that's going come in and help you digitize your concession and start your own online concession business,” said Kaymon Farmer, co-founder and CEO. “The main goal is to have a convenient way to accelerate payments and skip the lines.”
Formed in March as ConcessionDelivery, the company initially focused on contactless concession delivery services. It’s since pivoted and changed its name to focus on becoming a management system that allows school booster programs to digitize their concession business with a branded app that allows users to place orders for pickup or delivery, while providing real-time financial reporting and personnel tracking on the backend.
“We create the marketing kit for each school, and it's branded to their school to where we remove the thinking and the effort for them,” Farmer said. “We think through the tools and resources that they need to really make this work and, at the end of the day, increase the revenue in their production.”
The idea for ConcessionTeams came to Farmer while working as a technology applications teacher and coach at Princeton High School, when the pandemic forced the school’s booster club to consider hosting games without concession, which he said is one of the main fundraising drivers of the organization. He added that the company’s tech can also help drive revenue via advertising and allowing for digital payments – something a number of venues he visited were unable to process.
Currently in beta testing, Farmer said ConcessionTeams has been working with two schools, one focused solely on pickup orders, the other focused on pickup and delivery. He said the app helped one school raise more than $3,000. The plan is to reach 10 schools by the end of basketball season, with the goal of having about 30 schools using the platform when the 2022 football season kicks off.
Farmers said the plan is to stay focused on the high school level, where he said he sees having the most impact while avoiding larger competitors in the collegiate and professional space, before potentially looking to expand into those verticals.
“These schools proved to us that it works. We’re really building it out together now, gaining market research from them, and we’re looking to grow from here,” Farmer said.
ConcessionTeams has been gaining traction since its launch. Over the summer, it graduated from Impact Ventures’ accelerator program, tying for the audience favorite award at the program’s showcase and pitch event.
That’s also where Farmer met Language Learning Market, which received an Innovation Fund grant earlier this year. Farmer said the company is currently enrolled in the SaaS Academy run by Dan Martell, a managing partner at High Speed Ventures.
The company is now one of close to 25 other early-stage tech companies that have relocated or expanded within McKinney with the help of its EDC’s Innovation Fund, which was launched at the beginning of 2020. In total, those deals represent 565 planned new jobs and a real estate demand of more than 70,000 square feet.
“Out here in Texas, football is huge. I feel like it's been pretty consistent this season, from the venues and games that I've been at…. people are getting back to that normality,” Farmer said.
