Sanctuary

Sanctuary raised $5M for a horoscope app

Sam notes that the astrology app Sanctuary (sanctuaryworld.co) raised a $5M seed round, which sparked controversy among VCs who called funding horoscopes 'snake oil.'

“So they raised $5 million and it's caused a little bit of controversy because horoscopes are— well, they're bullshit. They're bullshit in the sense that there's not a lot of facts behind them. They're not real, but a lot of people buy into them thinking that they are legitimate. In fact, something like 40% of women check their horoscope on a regular basis”

Quiz on top, live human reader on the back end, take a cut as the middleman

Sam praises the Sanctuary model: a free quiz/test at the top of funnel, then upsell users into paying ~$50 to talk to a live reader, while the platform takes a cut as the middleman. He sees this structure working across many verticals.

“And what this app is doing that I particularly love that I think could work for so many different things is you get a top of funnel thing where you give these tests and then you do a come and talk to a person and you would charge $50 per person or per hour or whatever it is. And as a middle person, you take a cut. I think that is brilliant.”

Steal thisUse a free personality test to acquire users, then upsell a paid live consultation and take a cut as the marketplace.