Why We Built Stupid Good AI for Free (And Why That Actually Matters)

The best restaurant discovery tool costs nothing. That’s not an accident.

Paywall models create a filter. When discovery is behind a paywall, the people who pay become the signal. And the people who pay for a restaurant app tend to skew in a particular direction — demographically, economically, geographically. That skew ends up baked into the recommendations.

We’re building something for everyone who cares about eating well, regardless of whether they’ve ever paid for an app. That means keeping the core product free.

How we make it work

We’re not building a subscription model around the recommendations themselves. We’re building around the things that come after — the concierge layer, the planning tools, the features that are valuable once you already trust the core. The core stays free. The trust has to come first.

Why this matters for the product

Free means more users. More users means more signal. More signal means better recommendations. The decision to stay free isn’t just philosophical — it makes the product better for everyone who uses it.