From cocktail napkin idea to hospitality ecosystem TabPref is rethinking the service industry

AUSTIN, Texas - EntSun -- Aaron Horne is the founder of TabPref, Inc., the company behind TabPref. This hospitality-focused platform brings professional networking, workforce management, business-to-business tools, and consumer discovery into one ecosystem for the service industry. Based in Austin, Texas, he is building TabPref for hospitality workers, operators, vendors, and guests across the United States.

The idea for TabPref began at a bar. Horne had built a genuine connection with his favorite bartender. One day, she was suddenly gone, and there was no straightforward way to know where she went, to track her career, or to stay connected with people in the industry. That night, he sketched an idea on a cocktail napkin for an app he called Find My Bartender.

What started as a single focus grew into a larger vision. Through years of conversations with bartenders, servers, cooks, managers, vendors, and guests, Horne saw the same gaps across the hospitality ecosystem. Professionals lacked a true career home. Establishments juggled multiple disconnected systems. Vendors struggled to stay aligned with the venues they support. Consumers had no easy way to follow their favorite spots and people.

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TabPref evolved from a single-purpose app into the connected platform it is today. For individual professionals, TabPref serves as a dedicated career hub grounded in the realities of hospitality work. Bartenders, servers, line cooks, entertainers, and other talent create profiles that show their experience and skills, connect with peers, follow venues, discover new roles, and stay plugged into the industry even as jobs and locations change.

For establishments, TabPref provides a modern business hub that brings together staff communication, scheduling, and operations. Owners and managers can post roles, manage shifts and availability, share updates with staff, coordinate events, and keep teams aligned in one place, rather than mixing critical updates into long group texts.

For vendors and consumers, TabPref opens a direct connection to the people and places they care about. Vendors can present offerings and support customers where operators and staff are already active. Guests can follow their favorite bartenders, servers, and venues, see where people move, discover new experiences, and stay informed about events and specials.

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TabPref is designed to serve the service industry at the national level. The platform supports restaurants, bars, lodging, casinos, spas, and entertainment venues. It is designed to integrate with the tools these businesses already use, so more of the daily work can live within a single connected ecosystem rather than across multiple disconnected apps.

Horne brings a background in sales engineering, solution design, and customer-facing leadership to his work on TabPref. He has spent his career translating complex technology into practical outcomes. That experience, combined with a deep respect for the people who keep hospitality running, shapes every product decision.

To learn more about TabPref visit https://tabpref.com