Kara Nortman
Founder & Managing Partner, Monarch Collective. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounderexecutive@karanortman ↗LinkedIn ↗Wikipedia ↗
Kara Nortman is an investor and sports entrepreneur who co-founded Angel City FC and launched Monarch Collective. Previously, she served as a Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and spent nearly seven years as an executive at IAC.
2shows
2appearances
14statements
4resolved
3supported
0contradicted
75%fully supported
7said about them ↓ Everything Kara Nortman said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Nortman: Angel City was the first team to share gate revenue with players
“Give players a percentage of gate revenue when we are the first team to do that, because they're your biggest asset in telling people about the games, and they'd never been affiliate marketers, and they didn't make much money, so why not do that?”
Nortman: Deal picking accounts for at least 50% of VC value creation
“I definitely think the picking is 50% or more, but I very much believe in the doing”
Nortman: Natalie Portman initiated Angel City FC by texting 'let's start a team'
“After the 19 World Cup, she sent me text messages saying, let's start a team. And I just kept writing her long messages back about everything but that when I, until I realized she was serious.”
Nortman: Portland Thorns was the only NWSL team filling stadiums
“Portland was the only example of a team that was filling stadiums, but still shared all of its commercial operations with the men's side of the house. So the only thing that was women's was thorn specific was the soccer organization.”
Nortman: Angel City FC generated 4x projected first-year revenue
“So we did four X the revenue that we told investors we were going to do in our first year.”
Nortman: Engaged local investors matter far more than passive celebrity figureheads
“And so it's much more important to get a woman who's going to show up and do work than a big name or somebody who has endemic roots to Philadelphia than, you know, someone who doesn't.”
Nortman recruited Sean Rad to IAC before he created Tinder
“I went in and recruited Sean Radd into IAC and gave him his first business plan, which turned into something completely different. It wasn't Tinder. He took it and very much made it his own, but it was something I got involved with the day-to-day of in the fir…”
Nortman: Selecting board members for brand over chemistry is a founder mistake
“I think this is a mistake a lot of people make as founders, which is to try to get the biggest names or something that they think is sort of like a brand of a particular board member without really doing a lot of work to make sure that you have the right chemi…”
Nortman: Board seats drive gender diversity faster than VC partner roles
“I think that's the fastest place to make change, getting more women into venture roles, into, you know, kind of real decision-making GP roles in firms that can write real check is another one. It seems like that takes longer than changing the board, but both o…”
Kara Nortman: Founders focusing on exits in first pitch are a red flag
“Somebody who's talking about exit in the first meeting. And I should say not, and not exit in terms of, you know, because we may ask that sometimes, hey, where does this go? What happens? Who do you think might this might be a part of someday more like they're…”
Nortman: Angel City FC model required 10,000 fans 12 times a year
“The whole model worked if you could get nine or 10,000 people to show up 12 times a year.”
Nortman: Global women's sports revenue is $1B vs $500B for men's sports
“Right now, women's sports globally, all women's sports generates about a billion dollars in total revenue. Men's sports, it's a half a trillion.”
Nortman: Upfront partners only invest in about two new companies per year
“We only invest in about two companies a year.”
Nortman: NWSL merchandise and broadcasts were virtually inaccessible in 2015
“And I went to nine stores to buy a jersey for one of my daughters. Couldn't find any, right? Went to home, wanted to watch Crystal Dunn and Tobin Heath and Ally Long and all these players. And it was like it was being streamed from outer space for this league …”
The other half of the tape: Kara Nortman's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 5 times in 4 episodes across the shows. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 3Alexis Ohanian 2
Statements about Kara Nortman, by other people (2)
Ohanian Gave Angel City FC Founders Majority Ownership Without Capital Contribution
“I actually made sure the three founders Natalie, Cara, and Julie actually had a majority of the ownership.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 5
2024 2 mentions in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: VC of The Year: Forerunner's Kirsten Green on 2 $Bn+ Exits in 1 Year, Why We Are In The Very Early Innings For Commerce & How Brand Has Fundamentally Changed Over The Last Decade
- 20VC: Why You Should Not Invest From Patterns, Why No Good Business Was Built As An Analogy Of Another & Why The Rise Of The 'Celebrity Investor' Is Concerning with Emily Melton, Partner @ DFJ
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Kara's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Founder & Managing Partner, Monarch Collective | 1 | 8 | 100% 3/3 | full record on Masters of Scale → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Founder & Managing Partner, Monarch Collective | 1 | 6 | 0% 0/1 | full record on 20VC → |