Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Hu.
Hi Steven, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My wife and I both kind of grew up in Northern Virginia and met in DC, but we ended up doing a boomerang out to San Francisco in 2020 to pursue careers in tech. It was a pretty exciting move, but it also happened to coincide with COVID, which was probably the worst possible time to move across the country and try to make new friends.
We were also both pretty burnt out from work and everything going on at the time. And Sauna, which I discovered a long long time ago, then became one of the ways we could slow down in SF, destress and take care of our mindset and health.
It gave us an excuse to put our phones away, sit together and actually relax. At the same time, we started experiencing more of the sauna culture developing around the Bay Area when the lock down’s opened up and really came to appreciate the social side of it too.
When we eventually moved back to Northern Virginia after having kids, I took some time off to spend with my family and think about what I might want to build next.
During that downtime, I kept wondering: where do you actually go to hot Finnish sauna around DC where you can throw water on the rocks and hang out? There were certainly saunas, but I had a surprisingly hard time finding the experience I wanted.
Just imagine, I wanted a social Finnish sauna where I could go with my wife or friends, throw water on the stones to create löyly, get really hot, cool down, and hang out together with an awesome vibe.
A lot of the options were inside men’s or women’s only locker rooms, which meant my wife and I couldn’t sauna together, or they were kinda like rooms attached to a larger gym membership or just a different experience like infrared sauna private rooms. Not in a bad way, but just different.
That surprised me because sauna culture was having this renaissance in places like New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Seattle. I figured DC would have its own moment too, especially given the history of sauna and bathing here, from the old Senate baths in the basement of the Capitol Hill building, and historically, bathing in the tidal basin before it was banned, and obviously, the invite only sauna at the Finnish Embassy.
There just isn’t any affordable and easily accessible option where ordinary people like me could make communal sauna part of their week.
So you learn in tech that before you decide to solve a problem, you need to start talking to people.
I spoke with sauna operators that were building and renting out their mobile saunas, and people running sauna pop-ups and opening contrast therapy studios, and owners of bathhouses. I was originally just trying to understand why there weren’t more places to sauna, but those conversations gave me a sneak peak into this bigger wellness movement that was happening across the US.
One of the bigger things I discovered was this surprisingly large network of independent mobile sauna operators around the country. There was demand from people who wanted to rent a real sauna for a party, corporate event, Airbnb weekend, or gathering with friends, but actually finding a local operator was difficult.
So I built www.supersaunners.com, a sauna social network and matchmaking platform that helps people connect with mobile sauna operators around the country to book for events. Since launching, we’ve connected customers to mobile saunas for more than $150,000 in potential sauna bookings.
This kinda gave me a front-row seat to what was happening with saunas across the US and helped me get to know many of the people actually building this industry. But ultimately helped convince me that there was another piece missing.
Mobile sauna is an amazing way to introduce people to the experience, but if you want sauna to become part of everyday life, you really need to give people a permanent neighborhood spot.
Kinda like, you need somewhere people can go on a Tuesday night after work or Sunday morning with friends without organizing an event or driving an hour.
That’s really where Sauna Jungle came from. And the idea is that we are building the kind of place I originally went looking for when we moved home to DC.
My wife came up with the name, and we kinda think of “Sauna Jungle as a play on the metaphor, concrete jungle. The idea is to create a little escapes in the throughout the city where you can get hot, get cold, put your phone away and slow down for an hour with a friend.”
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Sauna Jungle’s model is intentionally designed within its neighborhood-sized footprint to focus on creating an exceptional communal and social Finnish sauna experience, and purposefully co-locating near a popular local bike and running trail that sits within the neighborhoods.
The company defers to guests on how they want to sauna, but expects most visits to last approximately 45 to 75 minutes, supporting an everyday or every-other-day sauna habit rather than treating sauna as an occasional luxury experience.
Memberships will sit alongside single visits and multi-visit options. A limited Founding Unlimited Membership will be offered ahead of opening for $130 per month.
More than 3,500 people have already joined Sauna Jungle’s pre-opening waitlist as construction progresses.
We’ve been impressed with Sauna Jungle, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Sauna Jungle’s model is intentionally designed within its neighborhood-sized footprint to focus on creating an exceptional communal and social Finnish sauna experience, and purposefully co-locating near a popular local bike and running trail that sits within the neighborhoods.
Sauna Jungle’s Arlington location centers the experience around two large Finnish saunas featuring high-temperature heat, high benches, mechanical ventilation, approximately 600 pounds of sauna stones in each room, and water poured over the stones to create löyly, the steam and humidity at the heart of Finnish sauna culture.
Guests can move between the saunas, three cold plunges, bucket showers, and communal cool-down space at their own pace.
“We kept coming back to the idea of the third place,” said co-founder Steven. “There are fewer places where you can casually spend time with a friend without the experience revolving around a meal, alcohol, or a screen. We believe the neighborhood sauna can become one of those places.”
“We’re not trying to build another spa,” said co-founder Steven Hu. “We want to create an exceptional Finnish sauna experience centered around great heat, real löyly, cold water, and community. Our goal is for going to the sauna to feel as normal as meeting a friend for coffee or taking a fitness class.” The company defers to guests on how they want to sauna, but expects most visits to last approximately 45 to 75 minutes, supporting an everyday or every-other-day sauna habit rather than treating sauna as an occasional luxury experience.
Memberships will sit alongside single visits and multi-visit options. A limited Founding Unlimited Membership will be offered ahead of opening for $130 per month.
More than 3,500 people have already joined Sauna Jungle’s pre-opening waitlist as construction progresses.
The first Sauna Jungle is under construction in Arlington’s Bluemont neighborhood, along the Wilson Boulevard commercial corridor near Ballston and Clarendon, and is expected to open in the next few months for Winter 2026.
The company is already evaluating several Washington, DC neighborhoods for its second Sauna Jungle, with a goal of opening the DC location in winter 2027.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Coming from a technology background and having built www.supersaunners.com (a social sauna website), we’ve been able to amass a ton of hyper local data and insights on where and how to deliver a really awesome social sauna experience to meet rising demand across the US. At the same time, we’ve also figured out the most efficient and economic way to execute a brick-and-morter build out that meets consumer expectations with commercial grade sauna and pool standards, making it easy for operators to join the Sauna Jungle model and open one up in their own neighborhoods if they want too.
Pricing:
- $130 per month Founder’s membership
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.saunajungle.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saunajungle/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Arlington-Sauna-61578764889843/
- Other: https://www.supersaunners.com
