Planning for any kind of party sucks and takes up so much time. I remember planning my party when I graduated from undergrad and it felt like it was taking forever to find the right place. I called several restaurants every day comparing prices and figuring out other logistics. Now, thanks to the digital age, it’s not so time-consuming. Mobile app Table Dot debuts in a couple months and takes away all the stress that comes from planning dinner parties. Founder/CEO Katherine Allen got the idea for it from being the party-planning go-to person for her friends and family.

Katherine says she hopes to keep Table Dot based in Tampa because the city has a great business startup community. Here’s a bit of what else she told me:

“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.”

To learn more about Table Dot, go here, here, and here. Find the rest of the interview here.