UP271 Kara Nortman

Kara Nortman is one of the three founders of Angel City Football Club, along with Julie Uhrman and the actor Natalie Portman, and it’s the first women’s professional soccer team in Los Angeles for over ten years.But the story has been about far more than football. A host of famous people have come on board, Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian, Mia Hamm, Eva Longoria and Jessica Chastain to name just a few of the club’s investors, who are buying in to one of the sports business’s most intriguing case studies. Nortman brings financial expertise from her role as managing partner of Upfront Ventures, so we talk about how US investors view women’s and men’s football, the opportunities and pitfalls ahead for women’s pro leagues, the questions associated with private equity and the benefit of an outside perspective in growing the women’s game.To keep up to date with all our podcasts, you should sign up to the Unofficial Partner newsletter. It goes to thousands of people across sport, every Thursday. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.