Julie Uhrman | |
---|---|
Born | July 20, 1974 |
Citizenship | United States |
Education | Washington University in St. Louis (BSBA 1996) |
Occupation | Entrepreneur |
Title | Founder and CEO of Ouya; Co-founder and president of Angel City FC |
Julie Uhrman is an American soccer executive and entrepreneur who is president of Angel City FC, a National Women's Soccer League team based in Los Angeles, California, that Uhrman also co-founded. [1] She was previously an executive at Playboy Enterprises, Lionsgate Entertainment, IGN, and Vivendi Entertainment, and founded the former video game console company Ouya. [2]
Uhrman and her twin sister Amy Longhi were born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She has two children, Charlie and Elle. [3] [4]
In 2012 Uhrman founded video gaming console maker Ouya, Inc., and was its CEO until 2015. [5] [6] [7] The platform was heralded to revolutionize the game industry with its microconsole. It had a successful Kickstarter campaign, having received $8,596,474 and garnered much hope and goodwill from the gaming community. [8] [9] Despite a loyal and hopeful fanbase, many critics became skeptical of Ouya's ability to deliver on its goals, with each of Uhrman's subsequent public appearances and interviews to promote the company. 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. [10] [11] [12] [13] After the controversy, Ouya failed to re-negotiate its debt with investors and its content library was sold to Razer Inc., where the console's hardware was soon discontinued. [14] [15] [16]
In 2020 Uhrman co-founded Angel City FC with venture capitalist Kara Nortman of Upfront Ventures, and actress Natalie Portman. 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. [17] 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. [17] [18] The NWSL granted Uhrman's group an expansion team on July 21, 2020, for play in the 2022 NWSL season. [17]
Razer Inc. is a Singaporean-American multinational technology company that designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, financial services, and gaming hardware. The company was founded in 2005 by Min-Liang Tan and Robert "RazerGuy" Krakoff, although the brand originated in 1998 in the United States. It is dual headquartered in the one-north subzone of Queenstown, Singapore, and Irvine, California, US.
Competitive men's professional soccer has been played in the United States since 1912 and since 2001 for women's. Numerous leagues have existed over the years with some recognized by the United States Soccer Federation and some not. The lists below are the single game attendance records for men's outdoor (60,000+), women's outdoor (20,000+), and men's indoor (18,000+) matches in American club soccer.
The Ouya, stylized as OUYA, is an 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 of Product Management to put together the engineering team. Development was funded via Kickstarter, raising US$8.5 million, becoming one of the website's highest earning projects in its history.
Women's soccer in the United States has developed quite differently from men's soccer. Until the 1970s, organized women's soccer matches in the U.S. existed only on a limited basis. The U.S. is now regarded as one of the top countries in the world for women's soccer, and FIFA ranked its national team #1 in the world after its back-to-back Women's World Cup victory in 2015 and 2019.
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. Headquartered in New York City, it is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federation.
Fist of Awesome is an independently developed video game by Nicoll Hunt funded through Kickstarter, and is described by the developer as a time-travelling-lumberjack-em-up. Hunt was one of ten indie game developers chosen via Twitter to receive Ouya consoles for development. Fist of Awesome is one of the ten pre-selected indie games to be made potentially available for the Ouya.
The GameStick is a discontinued home video game console developed by PlayJam. It is a microconsole the size of a USB flash drive that plugs directly into the back of a TV through an HDMI port and ships with its own Bluetooth controller. Users can download content from a curated storefront via Wi-Fi, with content stored locally for offline access. The device is powered by the PlayJam Games Platform and runs its own version of the Android operating system. It is portable and aimed at casual to mid-core gamers. Like the Ouya, it was funded through Kickstarter.
The expansion of the National Women's Soccer League began with the league's sophomore season in 2014, when the league expanded to a ninth team in Houston, and is an ongoing process that currently has seen five expansions, three direct or indirect relocations, and one contraction. The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) was established as the top level of professional women's soccer in the United States in 2013 in the wake of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association and Women's Professional Soccer.
Paige Kathleen Nielsen is an American professional soccer defender who currently plays for Angel City FC in the National Women's Soccer League.
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is the top-tier professional women's soccer league in the United States and Canada. Founded in 2013, the 2019 season, the last before COVID-19, saw an average 7,337 spectators among the 9 teams, the highest average attendance in league history. Its overall attendance in 2019 was also its highest ever, with 792,409 total. The overall attendance record was broken in the 2022 season, the first since 2019 to be relatively unaffected by COVID-19, with a total of 1,042,063. However, the per-game record from 2019 remains intact; the league had 10 teams in 2019 but expanded to 12 for 2022. The NWSL has the highest average attendance per game among all women's professional sports leagues in the United States.
Angel City Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team that began play in the 2022 season. Based in Los Angeles, California, the formation of the team was announced on July 21, 2020. The team has many high-profile owners, including Natalie Portman, America Ferrera, Mia Hamm, Sophia Bush, Abby Wambach, Eva Longoria, and Serena Williams.
Madison Guadalupe Hammond, named Shrewaka in the Keres language, is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defensive midfielder for Angel City FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).
Marla Messing is an American attorney and sports executive. She is known primarily for her work in soccer – first with the 1994 FIFA World Cup and as one of the first executives of Major League Soccer in 1995. In 1996, Messing became president and chief executive officer of the committee that organized the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. Most recently, Messing served as the interim CEO of the National Women's Soccer League. From 2019 to 2021 she was the CEO of USTA Southern California.
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 (2009–2011) and the Women's United Soccer Association (2001–2003), it was the 16th overall season of FIFA and USSF-sanctioned top division women's soccer in the United States. Twelve teams competed in the league, including two expansion teams, San Diego Wave FC and Angel City FC.
The 2022 Angel City FC season was the team's inaugural season as a professional women's soccer team. Angel City FC plays in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top tier of women's soccer in the United States.
Alyssa Paola Thompson is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Angel City FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the United States women's national team. She was named Gatorade Player of the Year in 2021. She was selected first overall in the 2023 NWSL Draft by Angel City while in high school.
Kara Elyse Nortman is an American venture capitalist, the founder and managing partner of Monarch Collective, and professional sports team owner who co-founded National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club Angel City FC.
The 2023 Angel City FC season was the team's second season as a professional women's soccer team. Angel City FC played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top tier of women's soccer in the United States.