By Lane Florsheim

How do you build a successful small business? For some, the answer is simple: Get hot people to show up.

"The West Village is an extraordinarily competitive market," said Craig Hutson, managing partner of the neighborhood restaurant Jack & Charlie's No. 118. "The energy in the room is really what this business is about." With that in mind, he offers 30 to 40 free meals a month to models and influencers using an app called Neon Coat.

"You fill the room with young, influential, good-looking people," Hutson said. As part of the deal, the models share social-media posts about the food, drinks and vibe on Instagram and TikTok -- enticing their followers and peers to stop by too.

While regular-looking people fiercely compete for tables on Resy, models and influencers say they can easily book entire days of meals and experiences on Neon Coat. What's more: The dinners, salon appointments, fitness classes and tarot readings available on the app are typically free in exchange for social-media posts.

Larissa Drekonja, a former model and actress, conceived of the app as a way to help young women in her field take control of their social lives. Models typically sign with agencies, which manage their careers and book jobs for them. After moving from a small town in Slovenia to New York City for her career when she was a teenager, Drekonja said her agency gave her only $300 weekly as a stipend, even though her day rate was $10,000 at the time. For everything from dining out to making routine appointments, she depended on promoters and agents.

When she wanted a free haircut, for instance, she had to go through her agents, she said. She wanted to cut out the middleman.

She launched Neon Coat in 2017 with two co-founders: Dan Berger, who was the first employee at the annotation company Genius, and Noah Siegel, who has an investing background. The name Neon Coat came about because Drekonja liked the association with Neo from "The Matrix ," the neon lights in Times Square and the protective qualities of a coat. Today, it is available in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and London. More than 12,500 models and influencers have used the app, and more than 1,500 businesses and brands have paid to list their services on it. The co-founders said Neon Coat users have generated over 350,000 pieces of social-media content for those clients.

Not just anyone can join. To be accepted, models have to have at least 1,000 followers on Instagram and a substantial portfolio of work. The threshold is slightly higher for influencers, at 5,000 followers on either Instagram or TikTok. Both need to have a high engagement rate, the company said.

Earlier this year, travel content creator Lauren Karwoski posted a video on TikTok showing how she could fill an entire day with Neon Coat offers. She grabbed a green juice from gourmet eatery Mangia (normally $9) in the morning, then took a workout class at Barry's (about $40 in New York City). Afterward, she got her eyebrows laminated at Nampa by Himalayan Salon ("I do this monthly anyways, so [I saved] myself 100 bucks right here"). That evening, she met another Neon Coat user for a glass of wine at Paros, a Greek restaurant in Tribeca. She estimated she saved $200 that day. "My favorite thing is that it's stuff that I would do normally," she said of the app.

Karwoski, who is nomadic and checks the app almost every day she's in one of the cities it serves, said Neon Coat helps her build credibility. "As a content creator, your portfolio is basically your social presence online," she said. "Being able to tag these restaurants, other local businesses could see those location tags and it could lead to a paid opportunity down the road." It's also led her to new favorite spots, like the Joyce, a restaurant in Miami. "I 100% would go back on my next trip and fully spend my own money if I need to," she said.

The app also includes activities such as ax-throwing and professional services including legal consultations. Some products and services are offered at steep discounts, like a blowout for $30 instead of $85, or $5,000 off a set of porcelain veneers. Restaurants and bars usually just require a tip for the staff. The businesses on Neon Coat pay a monthly subscription fee, usually less than $1,000, and receive a guaranteed stream of organic social-media content in return.

Federal Trade Commission guidelines require content creators to disclose when they receive products or services for free or at a discount, but the rules are followed inconsistently, including by influencers posting about experiences booked through Neon Coat. The company said that its terms and conditions say users are supposed to follow FTC guidelines on disclosures.

Joey Batista has been using Neon Coat since day one of running his business, a Portuguese bakery called Joey Bats that now has five locations across New York. "I'm kind of like a one-man show," he said, so getting posts from Neon Coat members fuels the cafe's social-media presence. "Right before I go to bed, I log in and reshare, reshare, reshare." He doesn't limit the number of members who can claim his offers and estimates that he gets five to 10 every day, or 20 or 30 during the high season for models: New York Fashion Week.

"What we get is beautiful, happy people," said Roxana Pintilie, the chief executive of Warren Tricomi salons, of her $500 per month Neon Coat subscription. She said that offering discounted hair services helps bring in a younger clientele. "They're a little bit more daring, and they allow the stylist and the colorist to do their best work."

Model Clara Serena, who has about 2,200 followers on Instagram, often takes advantage of the app's offers to hang out with her model and influencer friends. "We'll say, 'Let's go get a Neon Coat lunch and then go to the park and hang,' or 'Let's go to a Barry's class and then treat ourselves with a lunch.'"

"We have yet to try the ax-throwing," she said. "But we want to."

Write to Lane Florsheim at lane.florsheim@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 16, 2025 10:30 ET (14:30 GMT)

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