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Looking for a cheap night out? These Carleton students have an app for that

March 1, 2024
3:18 PM
ET

Featuring dozens of deals from local restaurants, the CheapNite app gives users access to the cheapest meals and drinks in the city, said CMO and co-founder Jake Ayre.

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Going out may be more expensive than ever, but a group of Carleton University students is looking to help penny pinchers make the most of their money with the help of a new app. Featuring dozens of deals, promotions and specials from local restaurants and bars each night, the CheapNite app was created to give users easy access to the cheapest meals and drinks in the city, said the app’s chief marketing officer Jake Ayre. The app launched in September after more than a year of work, co-founded by Ayre, alongside current and former Carleton students Luke Meadus, Mackenzie Wilson and Connor Ayre. According to Jake Ayre, personal deal-hunting experiences inspired the group to create a hub that puts all the best promotions in one place. “My friend and I were out for drinks, but us being broke students, we wanted to save a little money,” he said. “We looked online to find good restaurants nearby and there was nothing up to date, nothing showing us where the nearby food and drink deals were. All the regular suspects, like Google, Yelp, even Groupon, didn’t have the localized mom-and-pop restaurant deals. They don’t have the chalkboard deals.” With food costs higher than ever, going out to eat or drink is an increasingly sporadic experience for consumers. According to a recent survey from BMO, more than half of Canadians are cutting back on discretionary spending such as clothing and travel. When it comes to dining out, 57 per cent said they were spending less. To save money, more consumers are hunting for discounts. But those discounts are not only difficult for customers to find, they can also be hard for restaurants to promote, Ayre said. “This is such a live city,” he said. “There are opportunities to go out and have an affordable night, but there is no way of seeing it. There was no way of finding those affordable deals and it was causing people not to go out. Especially after the pandemic, we saw students staying in, not going out and making new friends, not experiencing college life.” The app is currently localized to Ottawa, gaining a user base of 1,500 in the six months since launch. But Ayre said part of the goal is for the app to be equally advantageous to restaurants. CheapNite coordinates directly with restaurants to get them on the platform, creating a profile with up-to-date promotions and specials. So far, approximately 100 restaurants are taking part. While Ayre and the team currently update the deals, he said a handful of restaurants have taken over their own accounts as they’ve started to see early results. “Restaurants were able to get an extra five or six customers throughout a weekend,” he said. “We’re having restaurants take control of their account and they use it like UberEats. They control what’s on their page.” Ayre said CheapNite is now planning to make a push to 15,000 users, with a long-term goal to expand into the Toronto area and beyond. He said the support he and the team have received has been key to getting their project off the ground. “As a startup, we thought our resources would be very limited and we’d be bootstrapping,” he said. “But we’ve been embraced by the Carleton community and they’ve been able to send us off to some really important events and connect us to some really important people. That’s helped us expand this idea and develop a culture that is all about growth and making the best product possible.”