Book live acts — drag, cabaret, bands, DJs — with payment held securely until the show goes on.
why we built it
Booking live entertainment mostly still runs on DMs, deposits paid into personal accounts, and trust with no backstop. Organisers hope the act shows up; performers hope the balance arrives after they have. Both sides deserve better than hope.
what we built
- Escrow payment via StripeCard payments are held securely, not paid straight to a stranger’s account.
- The Performance PINPayment is released when the organiser hands the performer a unique PIN at the event — proof the show happened.
- Performer-set termsPrices, packages and cancellation policies are set by the act and enforced automatically. No haggling, no surprises.
- Double-blind reviewsNeither side’s review is revealed until both are written, so ratings stay honest in both directions.
- Verified performersIdentity verification is handled through Stripe when performers connect their payouts.
the founders
Co-founder
Keegan Hirst
Keegan spent twelve years in professional rugby league — Hunslet, Dewsbury, Featherstone, Batley, and Super League with Wakefield Trinity. In 2015 he became the first British professional rugby league player to come out as gay.
What followed was a decade spent close to the LGBTQ+ community in the UK: speaking, broadcasting, and building an audience through his podcast work. It’s also where he watched the same conversation play out again and again — performers taking bookings on trust, chasing payment weeks after the show, and handing over a chunk of their fee to whoever made the introduction.
“I’ve spent my whole career around people whose living depends on turning up and performing. The admin around that shouldn’t be the hard part.”
Co-founder
Stephen Cheevers
Stephen has spent his career in sales and business building — first in enterprise B2B, later as founder of Trojan Horse Sales Consultancy, where he works with coaches and small businesses on the commercial side of what they do.
That work is mostly the same problem in a different costume: talented people who are excellent at the thing they do and left to fend for themselves on pricing, contracts and getting paid. Performr takes that off the performer’s plate — real prices published up front, terms enforced automatically, payment released the moment the act shows up.
“The best acts shouldn’t need to be the best negotiators.”
the company
Performr is operated by Performr Technologies Ltd, company number NI690934, registered in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, and founded in 2022. Questions? Visit the help centre or email info@performr.io.