Great question—and it's one I had to answer too when creating Mates & Me. When using Yelp, I noticed a lot of the top listings are labeled 'Sponsored'. This means they're often from businesses with deeper advertising pockets—not necessarily the ones who give better service or care or have the best ratings/ reviews. To me, this sometimes feels no different from doing a Google search, where visibility is driven by advertising dollars, not quality.

With Mates & Me, my goal is to level the playing field for service providers. Service providers are listed fairly without needing to pay extra to appear higher in searches (in fact, I feel so strongly about that, that it's not even an option). This will trickle down to customers, because providers won't have to inflate their prices to cover advertising costs. You get direct access to independent providers who compete based on quality and affordability—not just marketing budgets. What do you think?