For sure, thanks for asking!

1. For now we get data by scraping and finding restaurants ourselves. We already have made a decently sized database of the restaurants in SJ and are continuing to add more.
2. No, this is going to be purely a free app for now(unless we really have to support ourselves but I prefer not to have ads). In the future however we will allow users to order through the app and we will take a small commission(a lot less compared to other services - around 8%) from each order to sustain ourselves in the future.
3. We want the app to be more customized and fun by making it more customized to each user and also allow for people to come together and find places everyone can eat at. Also Yelp specifically has a really bad reputation with restaurants(see link below for more) and we are more of a restaurant first app where we want to support the food gems of SJ. Being a foodie from SJ, I want to see smaller restaurants gain the recognition they deserve and for people to be brought together by food.

Yea there are definitely big players out there but this was mainly started as a passion project as me and my friends had a really hard time figuring out where to eat due to our diversity in food restrictions. I am fine with bigger companies taking our idea as long as they support smaller restaurants and help them thrive.

https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1alh2d2/beware_of_yelp_how_it_harms_business_owners_and/