$20 Korean buffet, only for coupon holders: Spectra Eats in Montreal, a playbook any single person can copy in their own city
What it is A Montreal local restaurant "hidden deal" app: grab a free coupon, show it to the staff at the restaurant, and eat at a dedicated low price. Regular users pay $4.99 or $9.99 a month.
Why it took off Its own TikTok / Instagram videos each cover only "this restaurant, this set, this price, how to get the coupon". Hits get tens of thousands to a few hundred thousand views. Restaurants don't prepay and aren't charged a commission, so they're willing to join, and there's a new restaurant to film every week.
BHow you could follow it In a city with a food-social-media culture where nobody is doing this yet, start a local food account, sign up independent restaurants with empty seats to offer fixed-price sets, validate store conversion with a simple webpage that issues coupons, and only then add an app and a monthly fee.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-02-24 · 11-07 installs 15,729
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Spectra Eats is a local restaurant deals app in Montreal, and the model is simple: the restaurant sets a fixed-price set that isn't on the regular menu, the user grabs a free coupon in the app, shows it to the staff at the restaurant, and pays that price. It's not new: the iOS version launched in September 2025, and after a bit over a year Google Play shows about 16k installs, ranking between #40 and #70 on the Canadian food charts. What's worth watching isn't its size but how it links content, coupon claiming and in-store visits through one city and one short-video account. Few people know about this playbook yet, and it can be copied in another city.
A video with 170k views
On 2026 Oct 28, the TikTok account @spectra.ca posted a video titled "$20 AYCE Korean Buffet in Montreal (The Only One!)": Comon 꼬몽, a small Korean spot in the Verdun borough, $20 all-you-can-eat, three kinds of fried chicken, grilled beef, rice cake stir-fry, japchae, soft tofu stew, and a bibimbap bar, over 30 dishes in all. The caption gives the address first, then two steps:
1. Get a free ticket on the Spectra Eats app 2. Show it to the staff when you arrive
There's also a line: "No coupon? Pay regular menu price." The whole caption is written in English first, then again in French below.
By Nov 6, the video had 173k views and 6,591 likes. The comments ask what anyone planning to go would ask: "where", "address", "is it halal", "what time is the buffet", plus one that says "went today, so good" (TikHub, 11-06). The account has only 8,351 followers.
The same day, Spectra Eats' Google Play release date changed to 10-28. But this wasn't its first time on Android: the earliest review in the store is from February 2026, and third-party data recorded 15k installs by Oct 24. The release date was reset, and that day brought no spike.
What it is: not a discount coupon, a "secret menu"
The first line of the store page reads "Get secret offers at Montreal's top restaurants. Not on the menu, only on Spectra."
The offers pinned on the website's explore page are almost all fixed-price bundles: $22.85 sushi all-you-can-eat, $39 four-course meal, $80 two-person steak with tomahawk, $20 Mexican taco buffet. It's not "20% off", it's a single price set just for Spectra users.
The flow has three steps: pick a restaurant in the app and claim a coupon; show it in person; the staff charges the Spectra price. Most restaurants don't take payment through the platform, the money goes straight to the restaurant. The app also layers Beli-style social features on top: see where friends have been, community rankings, saves, your own food map, plus reservations.
How the money works (user terms, 2026-10-15 version):
| items | Pricing | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free users | $0 | 2 free coupons a month; inviting friends unlocks more |
| Restaurant Pass | $4.99/month (CAD, "Founders" price) | 1 coupons per restaurant per day |
| Spectra Pass | $9.99/mo | Up to 4 per restaurant per day, plus social events |
| Paid coupons | Varies by merchant | Some merchants sell coupons on the platform via Stripe, and the platform takes a service fee |
| Event Pass | $10/mo | Offline social dinners |
Whether and how merchants are paid on that side isn't stated on the website (unverified).
How big the numbers are: a small business, not a hit
- Google Play installs 15,219 (10-29) → 15,729 (11-06), up 510 over 8 days, about sixty to seventy a day.
- It has only charted on the Canada Food & Drink Top Free chart, between #43 and #69 during this period.
- On the iOS Canada store it has 133 ratings at 4.64 stars, and only a few more in 10 days (iTunes, 11-06).
- The website self-reports "154,763 Customers served" and "$9.1M in dining experiences claimed" (11-06). The first is probably cumulative restaurant visits, not registered users; the second is valued at menu price, not platform transaction volume. Dividing the two gives about $59 per order, which matches what one table pays for a meal.
- The LinkedIn company page lists only 1 employees. The operating entity is Mesmera Inc., and the website is signed Spectra Tech Corp.
Subscriber count and revenue are not public. Given this download volume, subscription income is most likely at the level a small team can survive on (inference).
Where users come from: each video is itself a transaction
Its own short videos are the main engine. @spectra.ca has posted two or three videos a week since February 2026, with almost unchanged format: "Trying a $X … in Montreal", restaurant name, address, bundle contents, the two-step claim, in English and French. The most-viewed ones: $25 buffet 343k (09-16), $36 seafood all-you-can-eat 286k (06-04), $35.20 sushi all-you-can-eat 270k (08-26), $20 Korean buffet 173k (10-28), $25 Indian food 119k (10-27). Almost all the hits are "$20–$45 all-you-can-eat or multi-course". The last week's videos only got ten or twenty thousand views, so the hit rate varies a lot.
Accounts with 8k followers often get tens or hundreds of thousands of views per post, so TikTok boosting is possible; the ad libraries show no record of it, so this can't be confirmed.
These videos don't sell the app, they sell "this restaurant, this bundle, this price, how to claim it". After watching, viewers know where to go and what it costs, and the only next step is to download the app and claim the coupon, with no other path. Instagram runs the same material, with 32k followers.
Restaurants and local small accounts reshare it. Partner restaurants post that they're running a promotion "via Spectra Montreal", and local small bloggers post "Found this Montreal app called Spectra" (2026-03). On TikTok you can already search "Is Spectra MTL worth it".
Word of mouth on local forums. In August 2026, someone on r/MTLFoodLovers asked about Spectra, and a reply said "I've used it several times myself, it's legit... one place even printed a menu just for Spectra".
Invites for coupons, offline dinners. Inviting one friend unlocks more coupons. They have also run a Meetup group, "Spectra - Make Friends & Have Fun", with 3,563 members, tying "meeting people" to "cheap meals". A five-star iOS review says exactly that: "The last Spectra event was so fun, I met a lot of people" (2025-10).
No media coverage, nobody on X talks about it, and the founders have not shared revenue figures.
Why restaurants agree
For restaurants, this is much lighter than group buying. Groupon makes users pay upfront and the platform takes a big cut; Spectra takes no prepayment and mostly doesn't handle the food money. A restaurant just offers a fixed-price bundle and gets a video exposure plus a batch of people walking in. Many are independent small spots with empty tables on weekdays, short of foot traffic.
So merchants sign up fast, new restaurants join every week, and the videos always have fresh material. This loop is its most valuable asset.
There's a cost too. One iOS user gave one star with the title "Really bad for the service industry":
People who use this are weird, they never tip and ask for a lot...
(2025-10). Users come for the low price and won't necessarily become regulars, and whether restaurants come out ahead determines whether new merchants keep coming. Other one-star reviews mention blank screens in the app, SMS codes that won't send, and subscription refunds that only partly came back, common problems for a small team.
Who it's competing with
| Product | Where | Scale | How it differs from Spectra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vayla | Montreal, iOS | 31 iOS Canada ratings, launched around 2026-04 | Charges $4.99/month up front, many offers are free single items from chains (Domino's pizza and the like) |
| Regulars | Montreal | Small | Builds loyalty by visit count, no coupons |
| Bella Vita | Toronto, launched November | Claims a waitlist of 11.5k | AI recommendations + reservations + up to 30% off, free, says Montreal and New York are next |
| Groupon / Tuango | Web, app | Groupon Play 116M installs | Group buying, prepayment, time limits, high commission |
| Beli | iOS, Android | Play 334k installs | Only friend check-in rankings, no offers |
(Google Play / App Store numbers, early November)
Vayla, a similar idea in the same city, has only 31 ratings, a quarter of Spectra's. The difference isn't the idea, it's execution: one puts out videos steadily every week and signs up restaurants one by one; the other doesn't.
If it were you
Verdict: worth trying, but this is a local business, not an app that grows on its own once listed. The playbook is clear: take "short videos + hidden bundles + free coupons redeemed in store" and run it again in another city. Almost nobody knows about it, and most cities don't have anyone doing it. The weak points are also obvious: the ceiling is one city, the way it makes money hasn't been proven, and someone has to go out every day to sign restaurants and shoot videos.
Who it suits: someone living in a city with a food-social media culture (Toronto, Vancouver, mid-sized US cities, or cities with other languages), who can shoot short videos and is willing to visit restaurants, one or two people. The tech is the easiest part, a small mini program for claiming and redeeming coupons is enough to start.
Who it doesn't suit: developers who only want to write code and won't go out; teams aiming for a national or platform play. This business has to sign restaurants from scratch in every new city.
How to do it:
- Don't build the app first. Start a local food account, sign 5–10 independent restaurants with empty tables, a fixed-price bundle each (all-you-can-eat and multi-course work best), issue coupons through a form or a web page, and first see whether the videos bring people through the door.
- Use its template for the videos: put the price and city in the title, and in the caption give the address, bundle contents, and the two claim steps, in two languages if the city is bilingual.
- Model it on a paid tier: a few free tickets a month let people try it first, then regulars pay a monthly fee. Invite-a-friend trades tickets.
- Fix its blind spot: help restaurants see the value of repeat customers. For example, a better price on the second visit, so restaurants see more than one-time cheap diners.
How to get users: mostly the team's own short-video accounts and partner restaurants reposting, plus local Reddit and Facebook groups. In the cold-start phase you can spend a little to boost the videos that perform. Offline dinners can be a second channel.
When to move: there's no hard deadline, but whoever signs the good restaurants in a city first holds it. Bella Vita is already active in Toronto, so if you want a city, open accounts there before the first half of next year.
Signs you're reading it wrong: (1) restaurants you sign drop their deals within a month or two, meaning the math doesn't work for them and the loop won't turn; (2) videos get views but few people claim tickets and show up, meaning the content entertains without driving transactions; (3) conversely, if Spectra launches in Montreal, grows in a second city, or discloses subscription revenue, the playbook is replicable and worth accelerating.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Vayla iOS 2026-04 iOS Canada 31 ratings; RestoMontreal has covered it Charges $4.99/month for membership up front, leading with free items at chain restaurants (Domino's etc.) plus fitness and events. Spectra starts free, focuses on fixed-price sets at independent restaurants, and has far more content. Regulars Web Not verified Small Builds up regular-customer prices based on visit count, no coupons Bella Vita iOS 2026-11 (Toronto, waitlist) Self-reported waitlist of 11,500+ AI recommendations + reservations + up to 30% off, launching in Toronto first Groupon / Tuango Web 2010–2011 Groupon Play 116M installs Group buying requires prepayment, is time-limited, and takes high platform fees; Spectra requires no prepayment and stays listed long-term Beli iOS 2021 Play 334k installs; iOS US store 17,679 ratings Only friend check-in rankings, no deals; Spectra brings that social layer and stacks it on top of coupons TheFork Android Long-established Play 28.4M installs European reservations plus % off, not in Montreal Too Good To Go Android 2016 Play 84.4M installs Sells leftover-food mystery boxes, not dine-in meals Foosik Web Not verified Small Discount vouchers for groups of 3+, prepayment required - Where users come from
- Confirmed Its own TikTok / Instagram short videos (a fixed template, "Trying a $X … in Montreal" plus claim steps, bilingual English and French): TikTok @spectra.ca with 83 videos and 8.3K followers; several videos at 10–340k views ($25 buffet 343k, $36 seafood 286k, $35.20 sushi 270k); IG 32k followers (TikHub; Jina)
- Inferred Short-video paid boosting (speculative): only 8.3K followers, yet single videos often reach hundreds of thousands of views; the ad libraries don't track it, so this can't be confirmed
- Confirmed Partner restaurant and local micro-creator reposts: limeni.restaurant, metropolitan.boy ("Found this Montreal app called Spectra"), _sarahis_ at 18k views; TikTok has a search aggregation page for "Is Spectra MTL worth it"
- Confirmed Reddit word of mouth: r/MTLFoodLovers post about Spectra (2026-08): "Used them multiple times myself, it's legit"
- Confirmed Invite-based acquisition: terms of use 4.6: inviting friends unlocks extra tickets and tier perks
- Confirmed Offline social events / Meetups: Meetup group "Spectra - Make Friends & Have Fun" with 3,563 members (Exa snapshot); Event Pass $10/month
Spectra Eats (discount.spectra.spectra_mobile): a Montreal app for "off-menu restaurant specials"
Bottom line
It didn't come out of nowhere. It's been a city business for over a year. The iOS app launched 2025-09, and the Android app was live by at least 2026-02 (the store listing date 2026-10-28 was reset). Its scale sits at the threshold of Canada's Food & Drink free chart, ranking 40–70: about 15.7k cumulative Play installs, roughly 70 a day; iOS has only 132 ratings. It took off mainly through the team's own TikTok and Instagram accounts: each video shows one restaurant's fixed-price set ("$20 Korean BBQ buffet", "$39 four courses") and ends with "claim your free ticket in the app and show the staff." Content, tickets, and in-store redemption form a closed loop. Consumers get 2 free tickets a month and can pay $4.99 / $9.99 a month for more; there are also paid tickets, from which the platform takes a service fee. The product differences are real (fixed-price secret menus, free to start, no prepayment, a Beli-style friend check-in ranking), but its growth comes mainly from content and merchant BD execution, not from the product being especially new.
1. Core numbers and data
| items | Numbers | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Play cumulative installs | 15,219(10-29) → 15,729(11-06), +8 in 510 days, about 64/day | googleplay library app_day |
| Play launch confirmed | The earliest review in the library is dated 2026-02-24; AppBrain says "On Google Play since October 2025"; the store listing date 10-28 is the reset date | Google Play library app.released; appbrain.com |
| Play chart position | Has only charted on Canada's Food & Drink free chart, between ranks 10-29–11-06 from 43 to 69 | googleplay library chart_rank |
| iOS | id6751058602,2025-09-02 launched; Canada store 132 ratings, 4.64 stars; only 10-28 more ratings from 11-06 to 3; ranked about 59 on Canada's Food & Drink free chart | iTunes lookup; appstore library app_day |
| Self-reported on the website | 154,763 "Customers served", $9.1M "In dining experiences claimed" (11-06). Earlier snapshots read 151,065 / $8.9M; LinkedIn once said $7.2M; the TikTok bio says "$8M+ claimed" | joinspectra.com; Exa snapshots; LinkedIn |
| Social media | Instagram @spectra.ca with 32k followers and 85 posts; TikTok @spectra.ca with 8,351 followers, 83 videos, 174k likes | Jina search summaries; TikHub |
| Company | Operating entity Mesmera Inc. (dba Spectra); the website credits Spectra Tech Corp. LinkedIn shows only 1 employees and 12 followers. PitchBook has a "Spectra Food" profile listed as "Accelerator/Inc" with a product of dining discounts and points for students and office workers (probably an early version) | Terms of use; linkedin.com/company/spectracorp; pitchbook.com/profiles/company/601610-23 |
"Customers served" is likely cumulative redemptions or diners served, not registered users. The $9.1M is "claimed value" at menu prices, not transaction volume through the platform. Dividing the two gives about $59 per order, which matches a table's worth of food. The "154k users" on the recall card should be read as visits.
2. Product and monetization (per terms of use 2026-10-15)
- Flow: pick a restaurant, claim a ticket, show it to staff in person, and the staff charge the Spectra price. Most merchants take payment directly, and consumers pay the restaurant directly.
- Deals are all fixed-price sets or buffets: $22.85 sushi all-you-can-eat, $39 four courses, $80 steak for two, $20 taco buffet, and more (joinspectra.com/en/explore). These aren't discount coupons; they're a "secret menu" made for Spectra.
- Free allowance: users without a subscription get 2 free tickets a month; inviting friends unlocks more tickets, and there are tier rewards such as "ninja mode," community rankings, and custom maps (terms 4.4 / 4.6).
- Subscriptions: Restaurant Pass $4.99/month ("Founders" price, 1 codes per restaurant per day); Spectra Pass $9.99/month (up to 4 codes per restaurant per day, plus social events).
- Paid tickets: some merchants' tickets are bought on the platform through Stripe, and the platform keeps a share as a service fee (terms 6.2).
- Another line: Spectra Events, where the $10/month Event Pass gets you into offline social meetups (merchant page on joinspectra.com, "Spectra Events"). They also ran a Meetup group, "Spectra - Make Friends & Have Fun" (Exa snapshot: 3,563 members, 441 reviews, "Up to 50% off"); that group link now redirects to a board game group.
- Merchant side: there's a separate iOS app, "Spectra for restaurants" (reservation management plus AI phone answering), and the website has a reservation backend at reserve.joinspectra.com.
- Correction to the recall card: it says "charges merchants $4.99/month for the Restaurant Pass." The terms make clear the Restaurant Pass is a consumer subscription, priced in CAD. Whether merchants pay and how is not public on the website (unverified).
3. Competitors
| Product | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from Spectra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vayla | iOS (9563-2352 Quebec Inc) / web | Around 2026-04 (iOS library records 2026-04-02) | iOS Canada 31 ratings; RestoMontreal 2026-09 has written about it | A direct local competitor. It charges $4.99/month for membership up front, with deals on free items at chain restaurants (Domino's pizza, Madame Poulet burgers, Homer's donuts), plus fitness and events. Spectra starts free and focuses on fixed-price sets at independent restaurants. |
| Regulars(regularspass.com) | iOS / Android / web | Not verified | Small | Montreal "regular prices" that build status by visit count, with no coupons |
| Bella Vita(bellavita.app) | Coming to iOS / Android | 2026-11 launched in Toronto (still on waitlist) | Self-reported waitlist of 11,500+ | AI recommendations, reservations with up to 30% off, and a food community, free for consumers. A Facebook video says it will do Toronto, Montreal, and New York. The closest copy of Spectra's format. |
| Tuango / Groupon | Web / App | 2010–2011 | Groupon Play 116M installs | Group buying that requires prepayment and is time-limited; Spectra requires no prepayment and stays listed long-term |
| TheFork | Android / iOS | Long-established | Play 28.4M installs | European reservations plus % off, not in Montreal |
| Beli | iOS / Android | 2021 | Play 334k installs; iOS US store 17,679 ratings, Canada store 1,092 ratings | Friend check-in rankings and restaurant lists; Spectra brings that social ranking in too, but its core is the tickets |
| Too Good To Go | Android / iOS | 2016 | Play 84.4M installs | Sells leftover-food mystery boxes, which is not the same as dining in at a restaurant |
| Foosik(foosik.com) | Web | Not verified | Small | Discount vouchers for groups of 3+, prepayment required |
| MTL Secret, a local deals account | Instagram / web | — | — | Only posts deals, no redemption loop |
Verdict: "secret in-store prices" already exist in Montreal. Vayla and Regulars are both doing it, and Tuango and Groupon came earlier. Spectra isn't first, but it clearly leads local rivals on content volume and deal count: Vayla has 31 iOS ratings, Spectra has 132.
4. Where users come from
- Its own short-video accounts (confirmed, main engine). TikTok @spectra.ca has posted roughly 2–3 videos a week since 2026-02, in a fixed format: "Trying a $X … in Montreal", bilingual English/French captions, the address, and a closing line: "1. Grab the free voucher in the app 2. Show it to the staff in person." Hits include a $25 buffet at 343k views (09-16), a $36 all-you-can-eat seafood at 286k (06-04), a $35.20 all-you-can-eat sushi at 270k (08-26), a $20 Korean BBQ buffet at 173k (10-28), and a $25 Indian meal at 119k (10-27) (TikHub). The same material runs on Instagram, with 32k followers. Followers are only 8.3K, yet single posts often reach hundreds of thousands of views, so it may have boosted posts with Spark Ads / Promote. No ads show in the ad library (Meta's library doesn't track this), so that remains unconfirmed.
- Organic reposts by merchants and small creators (confirmed). Partner restaurants post about it themselves (limeni.restaurant: "full promotion … through Spectra Montreal"), and local small accounts share it: "Found this Montreal app called Spectra" (metropolitan.boy, 2026-03), "Hidden gem … $20 three course" (virgiiirmz, 2026-01), and _sarahis_ (18k views). TikTok already has a search roundup page for "Is Spectra MTL worth it" (2026-09).
- Reddit word of mouth (confirmed). r/MTLFoodLovers has a "Spectra" thread (2026-08), with a commenter saying "Used them multiple times myself, it's legit… One restaurant printed a menu just for Spectra". Another thread, "Spectra eat – suggestions", is 2026-05 (Brave search snippet).
- Invite-to-grow (mechanism confirmed, impact unknown). Each invite unlocks extra vouchers and tier perks (terms 4.6).
- Offline social events / Meetups (confirmed). They've run Spectra Events and a Meetup group with 3,563 members, turning "meet people and get discounted meals" into a second acquisition channel.
- Android launch (a platform event, not a spike). The Play version didn't start at 10-28. AppBrain logged 15k installs by 10-24. Recently it's been a few dozen installs a day, with no sign of a one-time push.
- Not found: press coverage (only RestoMontreal wrote about rival Vayla), discussion on X (x-radar: 0 posts in 90 days), or TrustMRR / founder revenue posts.
5. Why it took off
- Every piece of content is a transaction. The videos don't sell the app. They sell this restaurant, this set menu, this price. Viewers know where to eat and what it costs, so the path from watching to redeeming is very short. Most hits are "$20–$45 unlimited / multi-course", which hits students and young workers who want to go out but worry about cost during inflation. Their early Instagram ad line said it outright: "NO more morning-after financial regret".
- A cheap empty-table marketing tool for restaurants. No prepayment, no platform payment processing. A restaurant just sets a fixed-price menu and gets free video exposure and foot traffic. That's much lighter than Groupon's "collect cash up front, platform takes half", so BD is easier and the merchant list grows faster.
- Free to start, paid when you use it a lot. 2 free vouchers a month let people try it. Heavy users pay $4.99 for a subscription. The barrier is lower than Vayla's "pay $4.99 before you can see anything", which should help download conversion (Vayla's 31 ratings serve as a side reference).
- Bilingual plus local density. Everything is in English and French, the product covers one city (plus nearby areas like Laval and DDO), and new restaurants come in every week, so there's always fresh content.
- Why it's not big yet: one city only; Android growth is a few dozen a day; iOS ratings grow slowly; only 1 people on LinkedIn. It's a local media-plus-deals business, not a product in a breakout.
6. Differentiation
- Versus Groupon / Tuango: no prepayment, no time limits, no restaurant fees taken by the platform.
- Versus Vayla: free to start; focuses on "secret fixed-price menus" at independent restaurants, not free single items at chains; far more content.
- Versus Beli: Beli only has rankings and social features. Spectra layers that social side on top of vouchers, which gives people another reason to stay.
- These differences helped, especially "no prepayment + fixed-price menus", which makes merchant BD and video topics easy. But the content engine and street-level execution are what got it going. Vayla runs a very similar model in the same city and is far behind, which suggests the gap is mostly execution.
7. Visibility and copycats
- Visibility: few people know about it yet. It circulates only in small local food circles (Reddit r/MTLFoodLovers, local TikTok / IG). No press coverage, nobody on X talks about it, and revenue isn't public. The website only publicizes vanity metrics like "people served / value claimed".
- Copycats: in the same city there's Vayla (paid membership, 2026 H1) and Regulars. Toronto's Bella Vita is the closest match (2026-11 launch, free, AI recommendations plus a 30% discount, and says it will go to Montreal). These are contemporaneous or later peers, not proof of copying.
8. What others can borrow
- The content template is "one video = one restaurant's fixed-price menu + the voucher steps", bilingual, with the address shown. Users come through the content, so acquisition costs stay low.
- For merchants it's just a "hidden menu". No prepayment, no cut of the meal. Merchants take no risk, so listing is quick.
- Give 2 free vouchers a month, then subscribe if you use them a lot. Invite friends to earn more.
- Dominate one city first, then expand. Social events (Meetup / Event Pass) serve as a second acquisition channel.
- The playbook can be copied to any mid-sized city with a strong food-social-media scene (Toronto, Vancouver, second-tier US cities). Bella Vita is already doing this in Toronto.
9. Uncertain
- How much of the video views came from paid boosting (Meta's ad library doesn't track it, and the TikTok European ad library doesn't cover Canada).
- Subscriber count and revenue, and whether merchants pay, are both undisclosed.
- How the 155k "Customers served" figure is calculated, and how it relates to real active users.
- Real iOS download numbers (only 132 ratings, so the rating rate may be very low).
- Company background: the recall card says "incubated by McGill Dobson", PitchBook only shows "Accelerator/Inc", no specific accelerator was found, and the founders' names weren't found.
Sources
- googleplay library (app, app_day, chart_rank, 2026-10-29 to 11-06); appstore library (app_profile, app_day)
- www.joinspectra.com/en; /en/explore; /en/terms-customer (2026-10-15 version); merchant page Spectra Events
- apps.apple.com/ca/app/spectra-eats/id6751058602 ;iTunes lookup
- www.appbrain.com/app/spectra-eats/discount.spectra.spectra_m…
- TikTok @spectra.ca (TikHub user profile and posts; searched "spectra montreal" and "spectra mtl")
- Instagram @spectra.ca (Jina search snippet: 32K followers)
- www.reddit.com/r/MTLFoodLovers/comments/1vi27ph/spectra/ (Brave snippet, 2026-08-07)
- www.meetup.com/www-spectra-discount/ (Exa snapshot)
- linkedin.com/company/spectracorp ;pitchbook.com/profiles/company/601610-23
- Vayla:apps.apple.com/ca/app/vayla/id6757683914 ;www.restomontreal.ca/article/discover-montreal-differently-w…
- Bella Vita:bellavita.app/how-it-works ;Regulars:regularspass.com/