A small experiment, on purpose.

What if booking a guitarist
— or a gardener, or someone to restyle your closet — felt as easy as ordering takeout?

A home cook for Saturday's dinner. A gardener to get the beds in before spring. Someone with real taste to rethink your closet. A trainer for the morning runs you keep meaning to start. Hobbyists doing what they love, priced for regular people to spice up everyday life — not at professional-event rates.

For people with something coming up, and for people who are great at something they do for love.

I'd host I'd be talent

The kinds of days this is built for

An acoustic guitarist for two hours. A home cook who'll handle the meal so you can stay out of the kitchen. A stylist with real taste to go through your closet and tell you the truth. A gardener to spend a Saturday morning getting the beds in. A trainer or yoga instructor for a standing weekend session in the park. A bartender who's serious about cocktails. A tarot reader at a birthday. A film photographer wandering the room. A painter capturing the night in oils. A DJ for a longer gathering. A florist who sets the table before guests arrive.

Most readers think: oh, I'd hire one of those for a dinner I'm having soon — or oh, I could do that.

If you're hosting

  1. Tell us what you've got planned — a dinner, a garden day, a Saturday morning.
  2. We match you with casual talent who's available and nearby.
  3. Book directly. No back-and-forth, no event-planner overhead.

If you're the talent

Why drive for Uber when you could do what you love?

  1. Tell us what you do — guitar, cocktails, tarot, anything you're good at.
  2. We send matching requests in your area when they come in.
  3. Say yes or no. Set your own price within a sensible band.

Two things we won't move on

Hobbyist pricing is the point. These are people who do this for the love of it, not for a living — so a booking costs a fraction of what a wedding band, a professional photographer, or a catering company would run you. That gap is the whole reason this is interesting.

Staying a hobbyist is a complete answer. No one will pressure you to go pro, build a brand, or turn this into a business. If you want to play one Saturday a month for a few neighbors, that's the goal — not a stepping stone.

How the fee works

Hosts pay a small booking fee to Coval when a match is confirmed. Talent keeps their full rate — no commission shaved off the top. The fee is how we cover matching, vetting, and the actual person on the other end of an email when something needs sorting. We're being honest that we're testing whether hosts find that worth paying for.

Where we are

Starting in Alexandria, DC, and Virginia Beach. Wider rollout depends on what we learn in these two places.

A note from Thomas

I host dinners. A few friends play guitar beautifully, cook well, mix a real drink — others garden, or have the kind of taste you'd want to borrow for an afternoon. Hiring a wedding vendor for a Tuesday makes no sense, and nothing in between exists. I'm building this carefully, on weekends. My day job is at AWS, so the engineering will be sturdy; the rest I'm figuring out the way you'd figure anything out — slowly, with people I trust. It's the kind of thing I'd want to use myself.

For hosts

Tell me what you've got planned

For talent

Tell me what you do