Meet Joey Gonzalez
Joey Gonzalez is an entrepreneur, operator and investor who has spent his career building and scaling category-defining businesses at the intersection of wellness, hospitality and consumer culture.
He is the Co-Founder of House 120, a new longevity and performance club in New York City, and PRODA, a next-generation protein soda brand. He also serves as Executive Chairman of Barry’s, where he previously spent a decade as CEO, helping transform the company from a boutique fitness concept into one of the world’s most recognized fitness and lifestyle brands.
Today, Gonzalez focuses on building, investing in and advising the next generation of consumer businesses. He also serves on the Board of Directors of StartOut, supporting its mission to accelerate the growth of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.
Before Barry’s
“From the age of 13, I was working in film, television and musical theater professionally as a SAG member. I spent the next decade balancing schoolwork with my performance career, which eventually took me to USC, where I got a dual degree in theater and a minor in cinema television. After graduating, I continued pursuing that dream until I discovered Barry’s.”
In 2004, at 26, a friend brought him to a workout class in West Hollywood that would reroute his life. He was hooked from the first 50 minutes. Two classes a day became the routine, and within months founder Barry Jay asked if he wanted to teach. The performer had found his stage - part teacher, part DJ, part entertainer. He went home after his first class as an instructor and told his now-husband Jonathan: this is what I’m doing with my life.
The Barry’s Years
What followed was a two-decade climb through every job the company had: instructor, general manager in 2006, director of operations, then partner and COO. Along the way he put everything he had into the business - investing his savings, leveraging his home, and relocating to New York to open Barry’s first location in the city.
In 2015, eleven years after that first class, he was named CEO. Under his leadership Barry’s grew from a handful of studios into a global brand - more than 90 locations across 16 countries - and survived the hardest year in its history, going from $120 million in revenue to zero almost overnight in 2020, then rebuilding to more than $100 million by 2022.
In 2024 he became global Co-CEO, and in June 2025 he stepped into a new role: Executive Chairman, focused on the brand’s long-term vision as it doubles its footprint again. He still teaches. The Red Room is where it started, and he never really left it.
- 2004Takes his first Barry’s class in West Hollywood; becomes an instructor (CNBC)
- 2006General manager, then director of operations (Men’s Health)
- 2015Named Chief Executive Officer (CNBC)
- 2020Guides Barry’s through the pandemic shutdown and back to profitability (CNBC)
- 2024Global Co-CEO (Men’s Health)
- 2025Named Executive Chairman (PR Newswire)
“Many days I have to wake up and choose who I’m going to disappoint.”Joey Gonzalez - Fortune, 2025
What’s Next
The next chapter is already underway. House 120, a longevity and performance club for those who take their healthspan seriously, is opening in New York City. PRODA is rethinking what a protein drink can be - a next-generation protein soda built for how people actually live.
Around those, he advises and invests in the next wave of consumer founders, serves on the board of StartOut supporting LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, and meets every Friday with people who cold-email him for career advice - a ritual he has kept for years.
Home is Miami Beach, with Jonathan and their two kids, Francesca and Jake. Most mornings still start the way they have for twenty years: a workout, and then to work.