Zokos, a new website launched Monday by Christopher Kieran FES ‘11, Brad Baer ARC ‘11 and Andrew Hapke SOM ‘11, aims to ease the planning of parties and dinners.

Zokos uses what Kieran calls “friend-sourcing” to help coordinate dinner parties. On Zokos, hosts can set a minimum or maximum number of guests, send invites via Facebook and email and ask guests to contribute a certain amount of money to defray costs. Think Kickstarter, but for dinner parties. If the goal amount is reached, the guests will pay the host through PayPal. If not, no one is charged.

They came up with the idea as members of Veggie Dinner, a 300-person vegetarian co-op at Yale that allows members to attend other members’ dinners, so long as they host one themselves. Initially they began Zokos to expand Veggie Dinner, but shifted the focus to cost-sharing. Now Zokos has expanded to a range of events from wine tastings to college parties.

Last September, the trio behind Zokos launched a private beta at Yale, Harvard, five other schools and 10 affinity groups across the country. Over 900 testers posted 400 plus meals, more than Grubly and Housefed combined.

[via Mashable]