Dinner party planning can be a real pain in the ass — even if you’re outsourcing the meal.
Katherine Allen, CEO/founder of Table Dot, was the go-to person whenever friends and family wanted to throw a dinner party. Allen felt that pain when she would be on a mission sending emails and making phone calls while looking for different chefs and cuisines. But her forthcoming app, Table Dot, derived from the French term “table d’hote” meaning “table of the host,” will alleviate the stress that comes from the planning process.
“It came out of an interest for me because I was putting on parties and I’d have to look for the entertainment factor. It came from a need where I was looking and I’d run into a roadblock,” she says. Before she knew it, she built up a list of chefs she could call on. The parties weren’t always elaborate productions. Some would be small gatherings with a simple menu featuring appetizers, main entrée, and dessert.
“We just didn’t want to be in the kitchen the whole time. If we’re cooking, we’re centered in the kitchen and not get the chance to be in other areas of the house,” she explains. Before launching Table Dot last year, Allen worked in the finance industry for a few years and in the on-demand sector as a dog walker. Dog walking taught her about the being the service provider rather than the consumer.
“[That experience] helped me understand what [customers] go through and what they’re looking for in their life when they sign up for these types of services.”
Katherine had a hand in every aspect during the creation of Table Dot — from the concept to the business model. Her friends and family helped raise the money she needed to create the mobile app, which is currently in development and scheduled to be released in the next couple months (it’ll be a free download in the App Store and on Google Play).
“It’s been in development for about 13 months, so we had to start the website in 2018. Basically, now we can start getting people into the database. We’ve been running campaigns for chefs to join,” she says.
So far, 500 chefs are ready and waiting for Table Dot to launch. The chefs build their own profiles complete with a custom menu, which customers can then look decide which dishes they want for their gathering.
“The customer looks through the menu and chooses an appetizer, a couple entrees, throws in some sides, then adds dessert and drinks,” explains Allen. Table Dot is centered solely around food. Customers will know who the chefs are, but listings are sorted by cuisine.
“We made it food-centric. When you look up a particular cuisine, it’s going to show you everything chefs uploaded for that particular cuisine. You’re shopping with your eyes just like when you see a picture on a menu,” she says. Once a menu is chosen, the chef and customer begin talking about the event in greater detail, including allergy issues and how the food is prepared.
Table Dot caps parties at no more than 20 people. Larger parties come with the option of choosing between a chef-served or buffet style event. There is no cost for chefs to sign-up, but a booking fee is charged to the customer. Chefs receive a Table Dot credit card once they’ve passed the background process to cover the cost of groceries without having to fund anything upfront.
Katherine estimates that Table Dot beta-testing will be completed nationwide by the end of 2020. Tampa, St. Petersburg and Orlando are the only cities currently beta-testing. New beta-testing cities outside of Florida should be added around mid-late 2020.
USF Tampa is one of the reasons Table Dot is able to grow. The app was accepted into the USF Connect Technology Incubator program, which allowed Katherine to compete with others in various annual pitch competitions.
“They were a big part of fostering the growth and giving me mentorship,” Allen mentions. She hopes to keep Table Dot based in Tampa because of the startup community. She wants to see how Table Dot works in the Bay area before and show that the app doesn’t have to live in Silicon Valley to compete on a national scale.
“Tampa has a great business startup ecosystem. There’s a lot of support and it’s right for a big company to flourish in.”
Being that Tampa Bay’s food culture is thriving, the stars are aligning for Table Dot to be a hit.
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