Welcome to The Pending 2.0

The moment that started it

For years, I applied to casting calls myself, through Google Forms, generic tools, or just an email address. Then one moment changed how I saw the process. I was helping a production cast fellow acrobats and performers, while many other roles across different fields were being searched for at the same time, and I saw how scattered it all was behind the scenes, spread across a dozen tools with no real overview. Somewhere in there was probably the right person for every role, which is also why artists so often never hear back: they fall through the cracks, or there simply isn't time to send a rejection or an update.

That moment is basically why The Pending 2.0 exists.

Where the idea came from

The original idea was simpler and, honestly, more idealistic: a place where artists and creatives from completely different worlds could find each other outside the logic of social media. No algorithm deciding who gets seen. No like count standing in for actual talent. Just people, and the chance for a conversation to turn into a collaboration.

We built a portfolio feature around that. Within a short time, close to 10,000 people had signed up. And once we saw that, it was obvious we'd only scratched the surface of what this could be.

Ten years of watching the same struggles

I've spent countless years as a freelance artist, currently a Cirque du Soleil soloist, and lived through many of these struggles firsthand. Along the way, countless conversations with fellow artists and colleagues showed me just how many others share them. Together with my co-founder Niklas, I started turning what I kept hearing, and what I'd lived through myself, into real tools. Getting found. Getting organized. Getting paid. Getting booked. The stuff that eats a freelancer's time and energy for no good reason.

The other side of the same problem

And then there was casting. That Google Form or generic email address moment wasn't an outlier. It's the norm. Productions and agencies, inside and outside the performing arts world, are often still running people's careers through shared inboxes and forms built for something else entirely. The tools that exist to fix this are often clunky, outdated, and overpriced for what they actually do. At some point Niklas and I looked at each other and said: enough. We can build this better, and we're going to.

Moving with the times, without losing what matters

That's also where AI belongs in this, for us. Not to replace judgment, not to decide who's talented. It's not just about fixing visibility or casting processes on the agency side. It's just as much about giving artists real workflow tools that make an actual difference in how they work day to day, tools that keep up with the times instead of asking freelancers to run their careers the same way people did fifteen years ago. The point isn't to make things faster for the sake of faster. It's to take the admin off everyone's plate, on both sides, so there's more time left for the part that actually needs a person: the creative work itself.

What 2.0 actually is

The Pending 2.0 is that whole idea, finally built out. Artists get a real portfolio and a real shot at being found. Agencies and casting directors get an actual system, not a form and a prayer. Both sides work on their own, fully. Neither is waiting on the other to matter.

We built this for every artist and every casting team who deserved a system that actually works for them, and gives them their time back. Welcome to the version that is.

— Tim & Niklas, Co-Founders