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.

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