What is Your Juno?
Your Juno is a financial education platform focused on the empowerment of women and non-binary people. We like to call it the ‘Duolingo of Money’, teaching you everything that you were never taught about money, like making your first investment, opening an ISA, or managing your money in a relationship.
Our target audience is women and non-binary people who are tired of being told they are bad with money.
When my sister and cofounder started talking to their friends about money amid the pandemic, we noticed a stark difference in the way that male and female friends handled the topic. While our male friends were outspoken about investments, mortgages and crypto, our female friends didn’t feel confident broaching the topic.
Why? Because of the financial education gap. In a study by Starling Bank, 73% of the financial articles in mainstream media that were directed at women were predominately about scrimping and saving, whereas 90% of the articles directed at men were overwhelmingly about growing and spending their money. The impact of this financial education imbalance is a gender wealth (and power) gap that puts women and non-binary people on the back foot.
Your Juno is here to change that. The app-based financial education platform offers easy-to-digest courses from experts from across finance and offers a safe space for women and non-binary people to gain financial confidence.
What led you to launch Your Juno?
I cofounded Your Juno with my sister, Alexia. She previously worked in corporate finance and has always been a personal finance nerd. I was never that interested in the topic before Your Juno but when the whole Gamestop saga happened, I fell down a rabbit hole. I became increasingly excited by the prospect of investing, and realised that there just wasn’t any reliable information out there. When you Google ‘How to invest in the stock market’, the links are all written by banks or fintech, trying to sell you their products.
With too much time on our hands during lockdown, Alexia and I started a money newsletter that was initially just aimed at our friends. Within two weeks, we had over 500 sign ups. That’s the moment we realised there was really something to be done here.
Prior to Juno, I had founded another company called Secret Sunrise London. I ran guided silent-disco events with executives at Ted, Coca-Cola, Babylon Health and Microsoft to name a few, and had a team of 14 facilitators. A very different endeavour, but it taught me a lot about scaling a community-based company quickly!
What would you say is Your Juno’s unique selling point?
I would say our USP is that we are building Your Juno with, and for, our community. Logging into the Slack everyday is one of the things that makes me most proud. The app has brought together a group of incredible women and non-binary people, with radically different backgrounds, who are committed to lifting the taboo around money.
This also means that we always put their needs first: we stay completely unbiased (no sponsorship!), and consult them in any product development or decision we make.