128 Productions is an independent house and techno promoter in Denver, Colorado, run by Alex Padgett, known to most as AP. It throws shows across the city's venues, and it just finished the first year of the Grid Festival, formerly Regenerate Fest.
Every show ends with a list of people to pay: headliners booked through agencies, local DJs, and the vendors who build the night.
Before Cleo
128 Productions had its P&L system set up. Paying the people behind each show was the slow part.
A lot of wires, a lot of retyping bank information, just a lot of time spent actually sending the invoice.
There was also no single record of what the company had spent with each agency or artist. In Alex's words, it was "a little bit of a mess, to be honest."
What runs on Cleo now
128 Productions opened its Cleo account in August 2026. By mid-October it had already received as many bills as in all of September.
Artists and vendors do much of the typing. 52% of the bills 128 Productions has paid were sent in by the artist or vendor through Cleo, not entered by Alex. Payment goes out by ACH, and the median bill is paid 1.8 days after it comes in.
Just having the local artists that we work with and vendors being able to invoice us directly through the network and through Cleo, it's been amazing. And it makes it real simple, just being able to pay it out very quickly and pay artists on time.
Tax season
Each year ended with a scramble to collect W-9s from everyone the company had paid. Cleo collects W-9s when an artist or vendor is onboarded and prepares 1099-NEC forms from the payments, so that work no longer piles up in December.
That was the main selling point for me. The end of the year, hula hooping. I don't have to do that anymore.
His advice to other promoters
Cleo makes everything really easy on you. It takes time off your plate and allows you to do what you do best, booking shows, throwing parties.