Yes, all of our restaurant partners have hundreds if not thousands of reviews on Yelp. This will be hard to game. The only exception is the Mayo & Mustard Food Truck but they are 4.5 Stars and totally awesome.
Ike's is temporarily suspended (figuring out a few logistical kinks), but they are being re-opened very soon with more sandwiches to choose from as well.
A survey of our merchants have shown that ~75% of people who come in buy another dish. We spoke to our users and many are repeat users of Munch On Me (daily and weekly).
There will always be copycats. We haven't found any yet, but I will assume that an identical copycat will have to start from scratch. As mentioned above, there is a small chance that Groupon or another clone will change its entire business model. Taking publicity when we're in 3 regions will not only help us gain momentum when we entire new markets, but also gain new traction in current markets.
Depends on what type of business. My first startup was a mobile app development business, so I formed an LLC on LegalZoom. It was no more than $200.
My current startup, Munch On Me, was going to be much bigger and I needed several contracts drafted with founders and such. I knew I wanted funding eventually so I set it up as a C Corporation from the start. Legal fees are in the several thousands for a good lawyer. There was a lot of customization in the process, which is why it costs so much as opposed to a one stop shop like LegalZoom.
We target dishes or meals at local restaurants. We take a split of the selling price. Early feedback from merchants tell us that they like what we're doing. Instead of offering $10 for $20 worth of food, we target specific things. Our goal is to answer: "What am I going to eat today?"
The deal structure for users is between 30% - 100% off. When we first launched, we had four 100% offers including an asian taco, thai iced tea, mocha, and fresh brewed coffee. You'll eventually see plenty of items in the Dish Feed that merchants upload themselves (subject to our approval of course) and users will be able to sort this feed.
There needs to be uniformity in the OS though. I don't think more than 3 can co-exist in the long-term. Users don't want too many options in the OS, but the hardware options is a huge plus.
I graduated from a top 3 business program and feel that everything I learned can easily be picked up later in life. If you want to hack stuff and build things on your own, studying CS is the way to go.