When Haley Rosen was forced to retire from skilled soccer in 2017 because of an injury, she returned to the Bay Area and took a “real job” in the tech industry. However, when she tried to look at women’s sports and proceed to follow her friends’ careers, she discovered that she couldn’t. Even basic information resembling schedules and game scores were difficult to seek out, which confused Rosen. “It didn’t match what I saw when I was in that space. I felt like I saw that people were excited about it and wanted to follow it. I didn’t think I was the only true fan of women’s sports and that led to the idea Women’s sport only– she said.
In the summer of 2019, Rosen created an Instagram account where she began posting content that was exclusively women’s sports news, unlike publications at the time that focused on women’s athletes’ off-the-field achievements. As a one-woman operation, she published photos, match highlights, interviews and other important moments in women’s sports. Then, in January 2020, she received the first check for an investment worth PLN 400,000. dollars from Eric Chen, the founder of the venture capital firm Ovo Fund, whom she met while working in Silicon Valley.
“I just talked to him about how excited I was about women’s sports and that there was momentum in that field,” Rosen said, explaining that she showed Chen all the engagement and activity her Instagram was generating. “And he actually came up to me and said, ‘I think it’s a business and we want to finance it.'”
The initial investment allowed Rosen to quit her job and build a team for Just Women’s Sports (JWS). They have expanded from their Instagram account to other social media sites, a website, a newsletter and a podcast hosted by soccer star Kelley O’Hara. From that time on, the company grew rapidly; Rosen’s bet – her belief – that there was a real hunger for women’s sports news paid off.
The following yr, 2021, the company raised $3.5 million in seed funding from a group of enterprise capitalists that included Kevin Durant, in addition to individual sports stars Elena Delle Donne, Hilary Knight, Sam Mewis, Kelley O’Hara and Arike Ogunbowale. That same yr, JWS expanded its offerings to incorporate more podcasts, a behind-the-scenes YouTube show, and a weekly digital highlights show.
In 2022, Rosen was named Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 and brought in an additional $6 million in financing that included investments from icons resembling Abby Wambach, Billie Jean King and Michele Kang. JWS’s revenues in the first quarter of 2022 were 4 times higher than in the previous yr, and the variety of viewers tripled.
Just Women’s Sports has added additional investors this yr and reaches 80 million people a month through its social media channels. On Instagram alone, JWS has surpassed one million followers and has experienced 150% year-over-year growth over the past two years, generating 185 million social media views across platforms during March Madness.
The company continued its women’s sports offerings and content, ranging from more original news and media to festivals and products. All of this made Rosen a finalist on our Entrepreneur 2024 list of 20 modern leaders.
You talked a lot about the excitement you saw early on in the women’s sports media space, but also how difficult it was to persuade people to speculate in it. Can you talk about these difficulties and why you think you encountered them?
I felt like the business world – investors, brands – was different from the growing audience I used to be seeing. When we initially began the company and told people we desired to treat women’s sport as a sport, most of the feedback was: ‘Why not make it a charity? This is not real business. People were never interested in it.” in women’s sports, why now?” It didn’t matter that we had data and proof that it was growing and building. These insights were blocked. And now we have record viewership and March Madness numbers that are higher than men’s, and people are finally taking notice.
But I think we have been really lucky on this journey. Because there have been so many “no” votes and because there have been so many naysayers in women’s sports, the individuals who bet on us really understood it and believed in it. I think that is a really funny thing about our partners. They bring a lot of energy to it, and then they connect with other individuals who understand it and are excited about it, who bring more energy.
Have you ever had moments of doubt in your vision? How did you overcome thoughts of quitting?
Of course. There were a million moments like this. There were times when things were hard because we were an early stage company looking for investors, but there have been also times when things were hard because we were breaking down and creating challenges for ourselves. There were so many moments of, “How can we do this?” Doubt is a part of this journey, but I just have great faith in athletes. I think these women are the best in the world. I think women’s sports are the pinnacle of entertainment. I like, love, love watching the US Women’s National Team play. I like watching NWSL games. I like watching WNBA games – for no other reason than I just enjoy it. It’s just fun. That’s why I imagine in the product of women’s sports. And so, even if I have doubts, I fundamentally imagine in the product. I actually feel strongly that specialized media is needed and that there must be a real sports conversation in the media.
What advice would you give to someone who has a strong vision and desires to see something occur? What advice should they ignore?
My advice is to at all times just do it and be persistent. In the early days of this company, many people told me that we would have liked to push the company to be more lifestyle-related. I think they were unsuitable, I turned down the opportunity and I think that is what I did. The most significant thing that got us from 0 to 100 was that we were persistent and believed in the vision. We believed in these athletes, we believed in the product, and it didn’t matter how many times we got “no.” It didn’t matter what reasons we got or why they thought something like this would not occur. We wanted to seek out a way, period.
For me, that is still my mindset, although the space has gotten larger and hotter and more competitive, although we have gotten larger, there are more eyes on us and the pressure is mounting. We’ve made great progress, but I think this is just the starting of what this space may be. I really imagine that space may be huge, and to make it huge, you would like dedicated digital media, and I think it’s as much as us to do that.
What to disregard: I actually think it is easy when there are a lot of really smart people around the table with amazing resumes and accolades who are willing to maintain everyone calm and do whatever they’re told. But as a builder you have to first build on your personal terms. I think the trap is falling into doing whatever the investor says.
You mentioned the binary that also exists between men’s and women’s sports, and the scope and excitement around them. So what does “women’s” sport mean to you in particular?
Even if we get rid of men’s and women’s sports titles, legacy media firms have built around the NFL and NBA. They’re just fundamentally not arrange from the top all the way down to really promote WNBA and NWSL content. They have chosen their priorities and those priorities are working in their favor. They bring in a lot of income. They do huge business with these leagues. So, to me, you possibly can say they cover men’s sports and we cover women’s sports, but what we actually attempt to do is prioritize women’s sports leagues. Because you see all these leagues and then you definately have to ask where to go to follow them holistically. I have been a sports fan perpetually. I also like men’s sports. There’s no binary about it. And I think it’s so simple as: Here I get sports content for men. I get NBA content. I get NFL content. I’m not receiving NWSL content. I’m not receiving WNBA content. So how do you get it and then share it with other sports fans?
As we go from 4% coverage of women’s sports, which is principally nothing, to real coverage, we have a lot to learn as an industry. Relationship means fun, excitement and victories, in addition to the good, the bad and the ugly. To understand this, we’d like to vary the industry. We want more eyes because we would like more resources, more dollars, but with more eyes and attention, it won’t at all times be all rainbows and butterflies. You will have more individuals who have opinions, good and bad. So I think at this point we have to come back to terms with it and we must always really be excited about it because it signifies that we’re reaching recent audiences and various kinds of folks that are bringing more people to our women’s sports table. And that is what we would like, right? That’s the goal.
How do you see Just Women’s Sports contributing to this goal?
I think women’s sports are finally making their way into the mainstream zeitgeist and I think platforms like Just Women’s Sports have played a really big role in that. It’s time. I feel like people are waking as much as it. They get it. Dollars and opportunities are flowing in. I’m really proud to have contributed to this and very excited and hungry to be a part of the next phase of women’s sport.
In terms of what we’re considering about now, since women’s sports are so underrated, we actually had to start out from scratch, just covering the news cycle and covering the basics of the leagues, teams and athletes that individuals visit. they were excited. At the time, that actually did a lot for the space and really moved the needle. And now we think about the undeniable fact that despite all the momentum, there are still times when, from the men’s perspective, it’s a 24/7, 365-day-a-year conversation. The off-season may be just as exciting with people talking about competitions and every little thing that is going on. This is the world we would like to build on the side of girls. So what we’re really considering about is more original content, collaborating with more creators, getting comfortable with starting recent conversations in a space where we are able to have sports conversations that individuals are having on their couch and have them in a public forum. Because I think that is what sports are all about.