Even before women’s sports experienced the skyrocketing growth of the past few years, Haley Rosen saw her place in it. A lifelong soccer player, she thought it would be on the pitch.
But when injuries cut short her brief pro career after stints with the Washington Spirit and Glasgow City FC, a pivot to founding digital-first media company Just Women’s Sports gave her reach and impact beyond her initial plans.
“Soccer was everything for me,” Rosen said. “I’m living my plan B. I wanted to be a soccer player.”
Frustrated by a lack of media coverage and her inability to follow her friends’ pro careers, Rosen vented to JB, then her boyfriend and now her husband. Why couldn’t she build it, he asked. From the back of a New York City taxi, Rosen secured the Instagram handle that launched the company.
That love of the game helps her romanticize the start of JWS in 2020, recalling fondly her days of churning out social content and newsletters only to teach private soccer lessons in the Bay Area all afternoon.
Buoyed by an early following — one she jokes was maybe 20,000 — the Stanford grad left her job at STRIVR, taking with her startup experience and insights into raising money and scaling a new company.
“I was just naive and I didn’t have a lot of expenses, so I felt like I had the freedom to do this,” she said. “It was just fun. And that feels scary now, but at the time it just felt like, ‘Man, there’s something happening here. What a privilege to be able to be at the front row seeing this and getting to build.’”
Rosen has certainly done both since, capturing the growth in women’s sports as she has built a media company catering to interested fans who traditional media wasn’t serving.
JWS has since grown to more than 4.5 million followers across all platforms with a monthly reach of 110 million on digital and social. In bringing in big-name investors and brands, JWS has expanded to a staff of around 30 and become a power player in the space.
That wasn’t a foregone conclusion at the start.
With women’s sports historically only getting 4% of media coverage, Rosen sought to build a new ecosystem to create more.
“I wasn’t interested in trying to go, ‘Hey, how do we get to five?’” she said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, this is a system that’s just fundamentally not built for these emerging leagues, so let’s go build that infrastructure for … what’s happening in women’s sports.”
With an early $400,000 investment from OVO Fund partner Eric Chen, JWS’s staff of four used its roots in social media to reach a younger demographic and make it easier for casual fans to be presented with women’s sports in the same way they are omnipresent for men’s sports.
“In 2020 when they launched, that was not obvious,” said NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman, whose league has had JWS as a media partner for five years. “She has really built the business case for the audience that actually wants to consume women’s sports.”
That took convincing early on, with some investors telling Rosen the business should be a nonprofit. But others saw her vision, and in 2021, JWS raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by Will Ventures. The staff grew to around 10, allowing Rosen to transition to more of a player/coach.
“It kind of went from cowboys trying their best, throwing spaghetti at the wall to like, ‘OK, now we’re building up the team and building this as a quote ‘real business,’” Rosen said.
JWS tried several new things, coming in early on the podcast boom, Rosen notes. It has four shows that are all sponsored.
“She doesn’t take no for an answer when she knows what’s right,” said Ali Riley, who co-hosts “T:me Wast:ng” with Kelley O’Hara. “The way she has raised money, the way she has connected people, the people that she’s hired, the way the company itself has grown, how invested she is, it’s so hard not to believe in her.”
JWS doubled revenue year-over-year from 2024 to 2025, working with 22 brand sponsors that include Amazon Prime, Ally and Google. The company has hosted events at NWSL championships or WNBA All-Star weekends.
Rosen is “savvy, strategic, purpose-driven and someone who embodies the vibe of our league,” Berman said. “The authenticity that she brings is incredibly valuable to us.”
That has remained as Rosen’s life has grown alongside the company, with the arrival of son Mason, nearly 2, pushing her to clarify her priorities.
“The journey back and finding my footing as Haley, the CEO mom, has made me genuinely a better CEO,” Rosen said.
It has helped Rosen cement JWS’s place in the industry, something Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie noted to a packed podcast audience at the Final Four.
Working with Rosen was “a no-brainer,” Leslie said. “She’s definitely connecting all of us in a way that we feel like it’s helping grow the game.”
And changing the game, even if it looks different than Rosen planned.
3 questions with Haley Rosen, CEO of Just Women’s Sports
Where do you see the media coverage of women’s sports evolving in the next five years?
“It’s going to be bigger and louder and more honest, and I think that’s a really important thing for the space.”
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given that helps guide you in your career?
“Be ruthless about your priorities. Focus on your priorities and only your priorities; let the other shit fall on the floor.”
Where’s the best place to run and what are you listening to?
“I love running on the beach and what am I listening to? I was going to say I’m listening to the waves. My music taste is all over. I’m probably listening to oldies though. … I’m really going through a Fleetwood Mac era right now, but I’m probably listening to something upbeat.”
