Kara Elyse Nortman (born ) is an American

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

, the founder and managing partner of Monarch Collective, and professional sports team owner who co-founded

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

(NWSL) club

Angel City FC Angel City Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Los Angeles, California, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The formation of the team was announced on July 21, 2020; it beg ...

Education

Nortman graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

with a bachelor's of arts degree in politics, and from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

with a master's in business administration.

Career

Venture capital

In 2014, Nortman joined

Upfront Ventures Upfront Ventures, formerly known as GRP Partners, is a Santa Monica-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. It is one of the largest venture capital firms in Los Angeles, with $2 billion in total raised funds. ...

, a

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

-based

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm. Nortman's investments included Parachute Home, Writer, Laurel, Fleetsmith (acquired by Apple), Strive Talent (acquired by Franklin Covey). In 2020, Upfront promoted Nortman as one of three co-managing partners. In 2022, she reportedly stepped back from investing at Upfront to focus on Angel City FC. In March 2023, Nortman announced the creation of Monarch Collective, a sports venture capital fund led by herself and Jasmine Robinson with a focus on women's teams, leagues, and business opportunities. Investors in the $100 million initial raise included former tennis player

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...

Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...

venture capital leader Laela Sturdy, and former

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

president Cindy Holland.

Sports ownership

In 2020, Nortman co-founded NWSL expansion club

with

Julie Uhrman Julie Uhrman is an American businesswoman who is president and co-founder of Angel City FC, a National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the hig ...

Natalie Portman Natalie Hershlag{{efn, Some Hebrew sources claim that her birth name was "Neta-Lee Hershleg" ({{langx, he, נטע-לי הרשלג) and later, her first name was Americanized to "Natalie". {{Cite news , last=Shamir , first=Oron , date=August ...

. Nortman recruited Portman after watching a

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is governed by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central Ameri ...

friendly match together, and recruited Uhrman from a women-in-tech basketball club to which they both belonged and that Nortman had helped to launch. Nortman also consulted with

U.S. Women's National Team Players Association The U.S. Women's National Team Players Association (USWNTPA) is a labor union representing the United States women's national soccer team (USWNT). The organization's primary mission is to protect the rights of the USWNT and to safeguard the econo ...

executive director Becca Roux on the business potential of women's soccer. In its initial season, Angel City FC sold 16,000 season tickets, averaged more than 19,000 attendance per match, and sold $11 million in corporate partnerships and $35 million in total sponsorship revenue. Its corporate partnership revenue was larger than seven

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

teams and approached the value of teams in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

and

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. Angel City FC's expansion fees were reportedly between $2 million and $5 million. In an April 2021 fundraise, Angel City FC was reportedly valued at more than $100 million.

Executive management

Nortman worked for seven years at

InterActiveCorp IAC Inc. is an American holding company that owns brands across 100 countries, mostly in media and Internet. The company originated in 1996 as HSN Inc. as the holding company of Home Shopping Network and USA Network before changing its name to ...

(IAC), where she served in executive roles for mergers and acquisitions and oversaw the acquisitions of

Urbanspoon Urbanspoon was a restaurant information and recommendation service founded in 2006 by former Jobster employees that offered its services in North America and parts of English-speaking Australasia and Europe. In January 2015, Zomato, an India-ba ...

and

Dictionary.com ''Dictionary.com'' is an online dictionary whose domain was first registered on May 14, 1995. The primary content on ''Dictionary.com'' is a proprietary dictionary based on '' Random House Unabridged Dictionary'', with editors for the site prov ...

. She later served IAC as an executive at its holdings Urbanspoon and

Citysearch Citysearch is an online city guide that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local cit ...

. At IAC, she also sat on the board of startup incubator Hatch Labs and recruited dating app

Tinder Tinder is easily Combustibility and flammability, combustible material used to Firemaking, start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder unt ...

and its founder

Sean Rad Sean Rad (born May 22, 1986) is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and the Founder of Tinder (app), Tinder. Rad launched Tinder in 2012 and by 2015, Tinder was the top grossing app in 99 countries, and in 2017, Tinder became the highest grossing ...

. Following IAC, she co-founded children's creativity startup Moonfrye with

Soleil Moon Frye Soleil Moon Frye (; born August 6, 1976) is an American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. She began her career as a child actress at the age of two. When she was seven, Frye won the role of Penelope "Punky" Brewster in the NBC sitco ...

. Prior to IAC, Nortman also worked for

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, and as a venture capitalist for

Battery Ventures Battery Ventures is a global, technology-focused investment firm. Founded in 1983, the firm makes venture-capital and private-equity investments in markets across the globe from offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Israel and Lond ...

Advocacy

Nortman co-founded All Raise, a gender-equality group of venture capitalists attempting to increase diversity among venture funds and entrepreneurship.

Personal life

Nortman is a lifelong resident of

. She attended the

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

and

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the f ...

s. Her business interest in women's sports started when she tried and failed to purchase a United States jersey at the 2015 tournament. Nortman married Jake Blumenthal in 2007 and has three daughters.

References

External links

Angel City FC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nortman, Kara 1970s births Living people Businesspeople from Los Angeles Princeton University alumni Stanford University alumni IAC Inc. people American technology company founders American venture capitalists American women investors Women venture capitalists American computer businesspeople National Women's Soccer League executives Angel City FC founders Angel City FC owners