"We raised the flag to call the ambitious women of Barcelona to action and we have turned our space into a magnet for these women, and they all come with a thousand ideas and a hunger to conquer the world." This is how Lian Grieg, one of its founders, summarized today the experience of the first year of operation of Juno House, the first women-only club that opened its doors in April 2021 in Barcelona with the aspiration of "gathering a community of feminist female talent and influential."
And, as explained by Natalie Batlle, Juno's chief executive and founder, they have succeeded. "What we have learned this year is that the woman to woman spirit is unstoppable; in just one year we have turned what was a project into a success story and the market and business niche is bigger than we thought: Juno House has become a great collaborative community and a meeting point for today's women who seek to be part of this change", says Batlle.
And that great community has not gone unnoticed in the business world. Both emerging and multinational brands have seen in Juno House a window of opportunity, a kind of laboratory, where they can present and test their ideas given the sectoral and age diversity of its members.
Hence, the promoters of the club have decided to diversify their business model and open new lines of business by offering Juno House as a strategic partner for companies that want to make themselves known or grow in Barcelona. So far they have partnered with 25 companies, including Bumble, Andbank and Shiseido.
"There is pure business here, we are ambitious women, but with an ambition based on collaboration above competition, and with this approach in one year we have already seen many success stories born here", pointed out the third co-founder of Juno , Eva Vila-Massana.
Given this business vitality and the number of projects promoted by the members, they have also decided to create an online store to give more visibility and purchase option to all the initiatives led by entrepreneurs under the Juno brand, thus expanding the possibilities that the store already offers physical that is at the entrance of the club facilities.
"We are a company and we want to grow, but with purpose, without losing our idea of creating networks of female talent and linking ourselves with the city of Barcelona", emphasized Vila-Massana.
According to the data provided by the co-founders, Juno currently has more than 500 members, a figure that doubles the number it had when it opened its doors. "We are aware that the bigger our community is, the more impact we can offer and that is why we are now launching a new membership, a new type of members with a lower monthly fee for those women who want to participate in our event program and not so much in our facilities and services", announced Batlle.
Juno's initial partners, those who supported the project before starting its activity, paid a fee of 1,200 euros per year. Those that have been added after opening their doors, between 150 and 165 euros per month. And those who opt for the new typology with smaller services will pay 65 euros per month, plus the 475 euros of enrollment that they have to pay upfront to demonstrate their commitment to the community.
Silvio Elías, on behalf of Sandrigham, the Elías family asset management company that provided the initial financing to make the project a reality, explained that in his extensive business career he has rarely seen such a spectacular execution and success story as this, and has congratulated the founders for realizing their purpose of a business based on collaborating and sharing, not competing.
Although he refuses to give figures on the progress of the business in this first year, Elías assures that the project is being able to generate resources to finance the new projects and they have not needed to increase the two million initial investment.
For Greig, part of that success has to do with the fact that the members find in Juno a place to do business and professional contacts, but also a safe space to express themselves from a more human point of view, where to talk with other members as friends, enjoy welfare and care services or cultural activities.
Beyond expanding online and offline business lines, Elías and the founders have explained that they are studying the opening of new Juno Houses in other cities in southern Europe but not for this year. "First we have to consolidate Barcelona, which is the cradle and it is important that it does not fail; then expansion will come," the businessman stressed.
