We believe one of the clearest signs of a recession is how far people will go for a reason to believe things might improve. When qualified professionals have sent hundreds of applications and begin paying witches to help them find work, we think the economy is telling us something. These customers have tried the conventional advice. They are now willing to consider supernatural advice, provided it has good reviews. At Miss Ventures, we see both a troubling economic signal and a clear need for more witches.
The appeal becomes easier to understand after a few months of looking for a job. You have rewritten your résumé, reached out to former colleagues, and explained your enthusiasm for a position that was subsequently eliminated. People keep telling you something will come along. A witch offers to do something about it tonight. You do not have to be certain it will work. You just have to reach the point where spending five dollars feels better than being told to keep your chin up again.
The Wall Street Journal’s The Journal documented exactly this kind of purchase. After months of struggling to find work, one woman paid $4.95 for a career spell. She selected the seller through search placement and customer reviews, and the package included nightly recasting for thirty days. We were particularly interested in that last detail. For less than five dollars, someone had committed to thinking about her employment prospects every evening for a month. Few people in her professional network had offered comparable support.
Our thesis is that prolonged uncertainty creates demand for one more thing to try. A person can keep applying for jobs while a witch burns a candle on their behalf. The purchase gives them something new to wait for, someone to ask for an update, and a small reason to imagine that next week could be different. We believe founders should take that desire seriously. Customers are already finding their way to these services without a venture-backed company explaining why they need them.
The message below is the reading Nathan paid for, a completed Etsy order delivered directly through the marketplace’s inbox. The practitioner addresses him by name, discusses his work and future, and closes by recommending another ritual. The message itself is the product. A customer can finish checkout and receive an account of their destiny through the same interface they would use to ask where their parcel is.
That is why we’re looking for people building witchcraft businesses, along with the infrastructure those businesses will need. We want to meet practitioners who understand their customers, communicate clearly, and have people returning to them with the next thing they are worried about. We’re also interested in marketplaces that help customers find those practitioners. Someone purchasing their first career spell should be able to compare availability, pricing, and what is included. They have spent enough time applying to things with undisclosed compensation.
The listings pictured below show how familiar the shopping experience has become: star ratings, sale prices, bestseller badges, and promises of same-hour delivery. Even uncertainty about the future comes with an Add to cart button.
Behind every growing practice is a set of increasingly ordinary business problems. A witch needs to collect payments, manage bookings, remember whose interview is on Thursday, and keep track of thirty consecutive nights of recasting. Customers want confirmation that their ritual has happened. Some want photographs. Others have follow-up questions about whether an initial recruiter call counts as results. There is room for software that keeps these details organized and gives practitioners more time for the work their customers actually hired them to do. A full calendar should not require a second gift of foresight.
An economic recovery would, of course, test parts of this thesis. We would welcome that outcome. It would also leave practitioners with a customer base that now has salaries and an entirely new set of concerns about promotions, colleagues, and whether to leave the job they recently paid to obtain. We suspect the relationship can survive an improvement in circumstances.
For now, people are reaching for hope wherever they can find it. We think that tells us something about the economy, and we think it gives founders something worth building. If you are a witch turning demand into a business, or a founder building the tools to help witches serve it, we would like to hear from you. Please send us a deck. If we don’t respond, we are open to other methods.
