The AI-powered operating system for performing arts schools
The AI-powered operating system for independent performing arts schools.
You stay in charge of your school. Your teachers become independent entrepreneurs under your brand, as a micro-franchise. One system runs the back office: 90% less admin, and designed to prevent false self-employment. So you can lead your school, and your teachers can do what they do best: teach.
A first version has been running since 2019 at Novae Popschool, the school of founder Collin Leijenaar.
- of the founder's own school practice
- 28+ years
- first version live at the founder's school
- 2019
- from 60-80 working hours a week to half a day
- 60-80 → ½
- less in admin costs per year
- €45k
Which school?
Klario® speaks your language
Music schools
Timetable, lessons, instruments and teachers sorted. So you can make music again.
- coming soon
Dance schools
Classes, studios and teachers sorted. So you can be back on the floor.
- coming soon
Theatre schools
Productions, classes and teachers in one place. So you can direct again.
Sound familiar?
You started your school to share your passion. Not to drown in admin.
Most independent performing arts schools run on freelance teachers, Excel and email, held together by whatever's in the owner's head. That costs owners a lot of evenings, and the risk of false self-employment brings legal exposure most of them don't see coming. If you go on holiday, the school stops.
- It's half past ten at night and you're still working out who has paid and who hasn't.
- You're not sure your freelance teacher contracts would pass a tax audit.
- You chase payments and have conversations you'd rather avoid.
- You carry the school alone. Your teachers teach their lessons and leave.
- Every new student means more paperwork.
- You love what you do. It has just become too much.
How it works
Your school as a micro-franchise.
Every teacher becomes an independent entrepreneur under your school's brand. They see what you see, take ownership, and stay entrepreneurs. You no longer carry the school alone.
- No freelance setup, but a franchise model built on franchise law.
- Set up with the franchise lawyers of Koelewijn & Partners.
- One system underneath that takes over 90% of the admin: scheduling, contracts, payments, communication, knowledge base and compliance.
How the AI works
AI before and after the work. Never in between.
You run your school in plain language. Say "move all Tuesday lessons of this teacher to Wednesday", and Klario® turns it into a workflow. A fixed, auditable engine then does the actual work.
The AI never touches your numbers.
Calculations, payments and rules run through fixed workflows you can audit. Risky actions need your approval first.
The more you use it, the less it needs AI.
Keep asking for the same thing, and Klario® suggests making it a fixed workflow.
Your data stays in Europe.
Klario’s AI is powered by Mistral, a European AI provider: EU-hosted, with zero data retention.
Klario 3.0 is being built right now. These are the design principles we won't compromise on.
Not another tool
An operating system for your school
Stop copying between calendars, bookkeeping, email and spreadsheets. One system runs the back office, 90% automated.
A timetable that adds up
Lessons, rooms and teachers in one place. Change a lesson and availability, invoicing and messages follow.
Paper and practice match
The franchise model was set up with the franchise lawyers of Koelewijn & Partners. Your teachers are franchisees with their own practice.
No more awkward money talks
Invoices and reminders go out automatically. You no longer call anyone about an unpaid lesson.
Dashboards you actually need
No vanity charts. Just the numbers that show what is happening in your school: finance, planning and occupancy.
Why we do this
Human connection is the heart of learning.
Learning to play an instrument, dance or act builds confidence, creativity, discipline and life skills, and gives people of every age a voice and a place to belong. New laws and regulations are putting many of these schools at risk. In a world flooded with AI, human connection matters more than ever. Without it, we lose what makes us human.
We use AI to protect that connection, not to replace it.
Why Klario gets it
Built by someone who was in the middle of it.
From 60-80 hours a week to half a day
Klario® was built by Collin Leijenaar. He's an internationally touring drummer and has run Novae Popschool for over 28 years, with 300+ students a year. For years he worked sixty to eighty hours a week on that school, most of it admin.
A first version of Klario has been running there since 2019. His work week went down to half a day, and the school saves over €45,000 a year in admin costs.
Why now
The rules have already changed. Your school may not have.
Across Europe, governments are cracking down on false self-employment. In the Netherlands the tax authority has been actively enforcing since 2025, looking at how things work in practice, not just at the contract. In Germany, a 2022 court ruling about a single music school teacher sent shockwaves through the entire sector.
- 2025: the Netherlands starts enforcing
- 2026: fines for intent or gross negligence
- 2027: the last transition rules disappear
Built for Europe
Made for European schools, in their own language and law.
Personal support in Dutch and English
You talk to people who know how a school works.
Payments via Mollie
iDEAL, SEPA direct debit, credit card, Klarna and more. Students pay the way that suits them.
Built on franchise law
Set up with Koelewijn & Partners and designed to prevent false self-employment.
Ready for Europe
Contract templates for other EU countries are ready. We start in the Benelux, then the rest of Europe.
The shift
From being run by your school to enjoying it again
Same school, same drive. A different way of working.
Without Klario
- You're an employee of your own school, not its owner.
- Sixty to eighty hours a week. And the question: is this it?
- You chase payments, with all the friction that comes with it.
- You carry the school on your own.
- If you go on holiday, the school stops.
With Klario
- You're the owner. You steer, one system runs the back office.
- From 60-80 hours a week to half a day.
- Invoices and reminders run automatically. The emotion is gone.
- Your teachers are entrepreneurs under your brand and carry the school with you.
- 90% less admin work.
Honest about fit
Who Klario is for, and who it isn't for
Klario fits if
- your school works with independent teachers
- you lose too many evenings to admin
- you want to grow without more paperwork
- you want a working relationship with teachers you can defend
- you want your teachers to share ownership
Klario is not for you if
- your teachers are employees and you want to keep it that way
- you only want a scheduling tool and nothing else
- you don't want to change how you handle contracts
Ready to run your school, instead of the other way around?
Book an introduction. In thirty minutes you'll see what Klario® means for your school, based on your own numbers and under mutual confidentiality.
Klario 3.0 is being built. The first schools join as early adopters, starting in the Benelux and then the rest of Europe.