Las Vegas startup lets you buy someone a drink from anywhere with Internet connection

Rachel Wenman, director of business development, David Leibner, center, CEO/founder, and Stewart Christensen, product manager, are shown at the “It’s On Me” offices Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014. It’s On Me is a mobile gifting application that allows users to send gifts, like drinks, dinner reservations and show tickets, to friends in real time.

Gone are the days when you need to be at the restaurant or bar to congratulate a colleague with dinner or a drink.

Now you can send gifts with a few swipes on a smartphone. And in Las Vegas there’s a company hoping to make the practice easier for gifters while driving more business to the local economy.

Download “It’s On Me” to your iPhone or iPad and you can instantly buy a friend food or drinks from your favorite joints in Las Vegas from anywhere with an Internet connection.

It's On Me was founded in Las Vegas by New York native David Leibner and best friend Rachel Wenman in August 2013. They recently launched the app's “GiftLocal” initiative, which focuses on driving business to the local community.

“We feel GiftLocal is the first thing we’ve released that has a soul,” said Leibner, who moved to Las Vegas from New Orleans in 1994.

It works like this: After downloading the app, you can log in via Facebook, Twitter or the app itself and search through menus from dozens of bars and restaurants in the area.

Click to enlarge photo

David Leibner, CEO/founder, and Rachel Wenman, director of business development, show off the "It's On Me" App at the company Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014. It's On Me is a mobile gifting application that allows users to send gifts, like drinks, dinner reservations and show tickets, to friends in real time.

Once you find the perfect gift, you can send it directly to a friend, either through a text message or directly through the It’s On Me app.

It’s a bit like LivingSocial or Groupon. The only difference? The gifts are tagged at full retail price. There isn’t a discount, because if a customer pays half price, he’ll always want to pay half price, which hurts business in the long run, Leibner said.

When a friend sends a gift through It’s On Me, the recipient gets a voucher that can be redeemed at the end of the night when it’s time to pay the tab.

The app is useful for merchants and vendors, too.

Borrowing the popular night club tactic of sending free drinks via text message in place of invites, merchants can use It’s On Me to draw people in with free appetizers or extras.

Leibner likes to use a real estate agent example. If you’re an agent and you sell someone a house, you can forget going to the store to put together a gift basket. Instead, congratulate the buyer with a dinner voucher via It’s On Me in a just a few taps.

In Las Vegas, It’s On Me has partnered with more than 30 local establishments, including Atomic Liquors, Artifice, Banger Brewing, Bin 702, Carson Kitchen, Commonwealth, the Double Down Saloon, DW Bistro and The Velveteen Rabbit.

The app also has partnerships with restaurants and bars in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and New York.

The company makes money by collecting a service charge from merchants and adding a 5 percent fee on top of gifters' total bill.

Looking forward, Leibner said It’s On Me may one day be a shot in the arm for communities across the globe. The app pushes 100,000 gifts every month.

“We can drive hundreds of millions of dollars into our local economy,” Leibner said.

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