Ellen Hyslop cofounded in 2017 The Gist, a sports media company geared toward female fans. Three years later, Haley Rosen founded Just Women’s Sports, making Instagram content about, well, just women’s sports.
The two have grown their women-led, women-run, and women-focused startups in the past few years — each amassing hundreds of thousands of followers, convincing big-name startup accelerators and investors to back them, and hiring dozens of staffers.
In the male-dominated sports media industry, these female founders have built sustainable and successful businesses around women in sports. They’re among a growing number of media companies focusing on female audiences as women’s sports surge, such as Togethxr, HighlightHER, and Girls Talk Sports TV.
They’re also pulling it off during a rough patch for sports and digital media, with layoffs and closures of sports desks at major publications — and while startups are facing an unfavorable funding environment.
Hyslop and Rosen spoke with Insider about why bringing women into sports conversations and putting women athletes center stage are both gaps in the market for sports fans and smart business models.
From nabbing big-name backers like Billie Jean King to major brand sponsorships like Nike, here’s how they built their businesses and grew their audiences.
“We really do feel like we have proven that there’s a different way to do things in sports,” Hyslop said of The Gist, “and we’ve proven that there’s a different business model that can still be successful.”
Creating communities and growing audiences
Both companies are multi-platform, from online content and articles to newsletters and podcasts. Both have hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, with Instagram and TikTok as the strongest platform for both.
The Gist is known for its newsletters and signature feminine and jargon-free tone aimed toward its community of “Gisters.”
The fans are already there — they just needed an outlet that invites them in, Hyslop said.
“It’s so often the case that women are left out of those sports conversations and that it can feel like a ‘boys club,'” she said.
The company’s three newsletters reach upwards of 850,000 inboxes, an increase from 500,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022, The Gist told Insider.
The founders also shared they’ve sustained open rates for their newsletters around 46%, more than double the average open rate in the media and publishing industry. They credit their newsletter success to listening to feedback from their “Gisters” and learning what the audience wants.
Just Women’s Sports also grew its audience in the past year, mainly on Instagram and TikTok. The accounts post funny, impressive, relatable, and newsworthy women’s sports content from all levels of sport and fitness.
In October 2022, it had 155,000 TikTok followers, and today it’s approaching 1 million. The company has 680,000 Instagram followers.
“That can sound like vanity metrics and that can sound like, “Oh! Followers!”” Rosen said. “But that means that we are getting women’s sports content in front of 800,000 more people than we were last year. That’s impactful and that’s important.”
Rosen said content is the first step toward engaging fans of women’s sports and getting them to show up to games, all of which can bring more money into the ecosystem that will benefit athletes. Media, she said, is the missing piece that will bring women’s sports into the mainstream.
Both startups have a King in their hand
In a media landscape of startups trying to do it all, The Gist and Just Women’s Sports both have clear missions and business strategies. Both have increased their revenues and attracted big-name investors, though The Gist leaned into startup accelerators and incubators while Just Women’s Sports has done venture-backed raises.
The two share a key investor: tennis icon and women’s sports legend Billie Jean King.
“I think it’s really cool that we have so many people that have been fighting for women’s sports and women more broadly that have been like, ‘I see this, I get it and I want to be a part of it,'” Rosen said.
The Gist has raised about $2 million in funding through several incubators and accelerators: Meta’s Digital News Innovation Challenge, Techstars’ Comcast NBCUniversal Lift Labs Accelerator, and King’s Enterprises Program, a partnership with R/GA and Elysian Park Ventures.
The Gist makes most of its money through brand sponsorships — companies like Nike, State Farm, and FanDuel pay to get their names featured in The Gist’s newsletters, social-media posts, and podcasts. The Gist’s founders said the startup is profitable and its annual revenue has grown 80% to 100% year over year since 2020.
Rosen at Just Women’s Sports also convinced King as well as several venture firms, team owners, and athlete investors to back her company.
Other investors include owners of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, Philadelphia 76ers, and Washington Spirit, and athletes like Kevin Durant, Allyson Felix, Abby Wambach, Sam Kerr, Kelley O’Hara, and Elena Delle Donne.
“Haley and her team have the vision and talent necessary to usher in a new era in sports media,” investor Michele Kang, who owns the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, said when the company announced new funding in 2022.
The company raised nearly $10 million through two funding rounds in 2021 and 2022. Its revenue was on the rise at the time of the 2022 announcement, growing during the first two quarters of the year.
Modeling a more equitable future for women in sports and sports media
The Gist and Just Women’s Sports are disrupting the dominant model in sports media: male reporters covering men’s sports. In 2022, women’s sports received 15% of all sports media coverage, a study by Wasserman’s The Collective found. About 20% of sports reporters in the US were women, per data from jobs site Zippia.
The Gist evenly splits its coverage between men’s and women’s sports, and its about 45-person full-time and part-time staff is almost entirely women.
Despite that divergence from the norm, Hyslop said, “We’re still doing exceptionally well as a business and we’re growing as a business.”
Rosen has about 20 full-time employees and said she likes running a “lean team” that cares about the company’s mission. She said working with passionate coworkers is inspiring and motivating.
“Every single person at Just Women’s Sports adds so much value and is so influential and impactful in the company,” Rosen said. “We’re learning as we go, we’re making mistakes, but I can tell you there’s a ton of hustle and passion and love and desire for a better future that goes into everything we do.”
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