Julie Uhrman is an American businesswoman who is president and co-founder of

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 ...

, a

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 ...

team based in

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, ...

. She was previously an executive at

Playboy Enterprises PLBY Group, Inc. is an American global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Hefner as Playboy Enterprises, Inc. to oversee the ''Playboy'' magazine and related assets. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. The company is focus ...

Lionsgate Entertainment Starz Entertainment Corp, formerly known officially as Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation and commonly as Lions Gate and/or Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Founded by ...

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

, and

Vivendi Entertainment Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment (formerly known as Vivendi Entertainment, Vivendi Visual Entertainment and Visual Entertainment) was a film, television, DVD and digital distribution company that operated in the United States and Canada. It was also a ...

, and founded the now-defunct

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

console company

Ouya The Ouya ( ), stylized as OUYA, is an Android (operating system), Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP ...

Personal life

Uhrman and her twin sister Amy Longhi were born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She has two children, Charlie and Elle.

Career

Ouya

In 2012 Uhrman founded video gaming console maker Ouya, Inc., and was its CEO until 2015. The platform was heralded to revolutionize the game industry with its

microconsole A microconsole is a home video game console that is typically powered by low-cost computing hardware, making the console lower-priced compared to other home consoles on the market. The majority of microconsoles, with a few exceptions such as ...

. It had a successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign, having received $8,596,474 and garnered much hope and goodwill from the gaming community to try and get more games on the television. Despite a loyal and hopeful fanbase, many critics became skeptical of Ouya's ability to deliver on its goals of getting more players to play games on the television, with each of Uhrman's subsequent public appearances and interviews to promote the company and get more games on the television. After launch, Ouya became a commercial failure. The console was critically panned and derided for its low quality, poor design, and lack of proper gaming content. After the controversy, Ouya failed to re-negotiate its debt with investors and its content library was sold to

Razer Inc. Razer Inc. is an American-Singaporean multinational corporation and technology company that makes, develops, and sells consumer electronics, financial services, and gaming hardware. The brand was founded in 1998, then refounded in 2005 by Mi ...

, where the console's hardware was soon discontinued.

Angel City FC

In 2020 Uhrman co-founded Angel City FC with

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 ...

ist Kara Nortman of

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. ...

, and actress

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 ...

. The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club signed 21 sponsors and sold 14,300 season tickets before its first season of play, and attracted a $14 million investment round from numerous celebrities, including lead investor

Alexis Ohanian Alexis Kerry Ohanian (; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and former executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz. He also ...

. Nortman recruited Uhrman in 2019 from the pickup basketball league both women competed in and tasked her with building the team's business plan, despite Uhrman not previously knowing that the NWSL existed. The NWSL granted Uhrman's group an expansion team on July 21, 2020, for play in the

2022 NWSL season The 2022 National Women's Soccer League season was the tenth season of the National Women's Soccer League, the top division of women's soccer in the United States. Including the NWSL's two professional predecessors, Women's Professional Soccer (2 ...

References

Living people Angel City FC founders National Women's Soccer League executives American technology company founders American technology chief executives Olin Business School (Washington University) alumni 1974 births American twins Angel City FC owners {{videogame-bio-stub