Arriving in a new city is not easy. Moving to a country where neither the customs nor the language are the same can mean moments of loneliness. So most people choose to join the gym, theater groups, reading clubs or any group activity where they can meet people. Anna Bilych and Oleg Pashinin want to change the way ambitious women build their social and professional circle.
Anna is originally from Estonia, she moved to Dublin to work at Paypal and there she managed to grow the community of women within the company, she was the first in her sector, and when she left the number reached 300 jobs occupied by women . When Anna arrived in Barcelona she realized the need to build her social network again, which was not easy, she did not know anyone, and although she tried to go to some events, everything was full of tourists who would not stay in Barcelona. the city like her.
From this need came the idea of the startup Les Amis: a safe space for ambitious women like her to connect, spend time together and support each other. Oleg has joined Anna on this mission. As he grew up surrounded by women, he assumed the idea of brotherhood very early on. He is now excited about the opportunity to help women connect using technology.
Oleg is the one in charge of all the technological part, the website, the application, etc. When they started this project a year and a half ago, the strategy they followed was to create their own Instagram page and promote the events there. They also used advertising, creating ads for social networks. When the community grew they stopped needing advertising, through Instagram and Tiktok they grew exponentially.
The first event they organized was a Taiwanese tea ceremony, currently they do Tea parties, painting and film classes on the roof of the Palace, boat parties, ceramics classes, jewelry creation... . The first events were very small and they wanted to keep the groups small, no more than ten people. Anna realized that this creates the most favorable environment for the members to get to know each other better.
Anna and Oleg bring their passion for culture, music and good food to Les Amis. They organize plans each week around these activities. The members are between 25 and 36 years old, work in Tech, are entrepreneurs or artists. To join Les Amis you have to fill out a form in which you state your attitudes and ambitions, and they must approve them. Membership includes one activity per month, as well as countless other free activities such as book club, running club, clothing exchange.
It currently has more than a thousand members, half of them are local and the other half foreign. This is something that surprised Anna, that so many Spanish women decided to also sign up to make friends and meet people from outside.
They recently launched the Les Amis app, which facilitates interaction with members, from there they can book the events they want to attend and through Artificial Intelligence, every two weeks, they match users based on their tastes, preferences, profession and concerns so that they can get to know each other and even meet in person.
Anna and Oleg want to grow in terms of the number of workers, engineers and computer scientists, as they seek to improve the experience of users and the app. Although its main objective is to expand outside of Barcelona, to large cities like Madrid, Paris, Rome. They have already opened les Amis in Amsterdam and intend to continue expanding.
Les Amis want to give users the feeling that they are not alone, that when they arrive in a new city, usually in another country, there are already people they can turn to and make plans with. Groups and friendships are created because they all share the same objectives: having a good time, making friends and growing personally, because if something characterizes Les Amis, it is its ambition.
