Looking to meet someone for a drink? New dating app launches in Las Vegas
New dating app First Round’s On Me doesn’t want to be just a dating app.
The Los Angeles-based app which launched nationally — including in Las Vegas last week — gets users from their phone screens and into bar stools or coffee shops with the click of a button.
“We want to be a brand that’s kind of retraining and reshaping the way that people treat human beings,” said founder and CEO Joe Feminella, 34.
No swiping on this app, when users “heart” someone it immediately prompts them to schedule a date to get drinks — alcoholic or non-alcoholic — based on availability users input in the app. Once the date is accepted, a chat feature opens no earlier than 24 hours before the date and only one date can be scheduled per day.
Can’t think of a place? The app prompts users with curated spots. If you have a favorite, you can do a Google search in the app.
Feminella came up with the idea after he noticed the pitfalls in online dating when he was single living in New York. Then when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he put pen to paper.
“We have this problem with pen pals. Everybody talks and then you don’t know where you stand,” said Feminella on the lack of action taken on “traditional” dating apps. “So we were like: ‘why don’t we give people 24 hours to chat before the date,’ and leave all those natural, ice breaking questions to keep the first date as organic as possible.”
Feminella launched the app in May 2020 and moved to Los Angeles in June 2020, where he met his match in marriage and business: Hannah Feminella. With his new wife, co-founder and creative lead, the two relaunched the app in May 2022 when they received seed funding.
The app gained over 160,000 users, had over 8,500 completed dates and even a few marriages in it’s 12 test markets across the country.
Feminella thinks the app will be the perfect fit for “the real side” of Las Vegas, not caught up in the “hustle and bustle.”
“We actually want [people] to sit down and have a drink with somebody as opposed to just getting crazy at the MGM,” said Feminella.
Emerson Drewes can be reached at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.
