Serena Williams is looking for a new type of win.
She's looking for passionate founders to back through her San Francisco-based venture firm, Serena Ventures, which she manages with business partner Alison Rapaport Stillman.
On Wednesday, the 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion spoke about her mission as an investor during TechCrunch's annual Disrupt conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco. She touched on topics ranging from being a woman in business, investing in Web3, the differences between winning on the court and winning in venture, and whether she discusses work with her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who also has his own venture firm in Florida called Seven Seven Six.
Does her persona as a tennis player translate to her persona as an investor in venture capital?
“I'm quite the opposite. I think that's a different Serena in general. … The tennis player is very intense. … I used to ask my mom, ‘Why did you name me Serena?’ because I'm almost opposite of that. But as I got older, I mean, it envelops me, I'm very serene and I'm very calm. … I just feel like that's a good way to approach this industry, in particular, because there's a lot of ups and downs.”
On the expectations of being a woman in business
“I think planning is something that is so vital and so important, and that's one thing that we do. We really plan so much. And yeah, it's hard because as women if you do want a family, they taught you how you can't always put yourself first. And I think women, in general, we tend to put ourselves always not first. Second, third. … When you have a kid it's like… you don't really even show yourself enough self care and love. … I'm really bad at it, but at the same time, I'm so happy. I really want my daughter and my family to be ahead of me. But yeah, it's interesting how women think and I like that we think that way and I think that's what makes us special.”
On deliberately choosing a diverse set of limited partners and getting to 40% women and people of color
“We don't get to see that often. And so what we do at Serena Ventures, it's really important for us to make sure we invest in all types of founders. But one conversation that Allison and I had early on, was that, listen, we also want to just figure out the problem as a whole. We want our LPs to also be women and people of color. … It definitely took us a little bit longer but you don't see these kinds of numbers and we honestly are super proud of that.”
On learning to wait for a win
“I want everyone to win. And at least everyone that we invested in. … We continue to grow with every quarter. It seems like we get even more diligent with our due diligence… We spend countless of hours talking to our founders and helping them and asking them questions and how can we be helpful to, you know, to make this successful? Because you're right, I'm used to just really having everything have success… and that's something I definitely need to continue to understand. That usually when you're investing so early stage, as we are with pre-seed and seed, you don't get 100% winners, but I'm just like, well, did I do something wrong? …We still want to have as many winners as we can. And then winning looks different…. Sometimes winning isn't about having a unicorn or having a $500 million company. Sometimes winning, it looks different… so I'm just still trying to find that balance of, you know, understanding that you can't pick 100% winners… It did take me 17 years to win my first Grand Slam, so I can wait. I'm good at waiting.”
Failure is an opportunity to learn
“I think that experience shows… I always look at what have you not been successful at it? Because that shows me that when times get tough, you know what's coming and you know what to expect. And failure is great. I think it's a great opportunity to learn and I don't even like the word failure. I feel like it should be called ‘I had an opportunity to learn.’ That's what it should be called to me because I feel like that really creates the very next best thing.”
Why she's looking for founders who are passionate, not just opportunistic
“And one thing that I really like to look at is, are you doing this because it's a white space? Are you doing this because it's something that's near and dear to you? I've found that usually when it's near and dear to you, and there's a space available for it, that's the winning combo. But if you're doing it because, oh, you see it's a great opportunity and it's … something that can be done here, then no matter how big and open it is, it generally is never as good as someone that really has something that they're actually passionate about.”
Does she talk shop with her husband Alexis Ohanian?
“We don't talk about business, at all. No, not at all. I will ask him one question. I'll be like, tell me about this founder. Do you know this? Tell me about him. And he'll give me a whole plethora of information. Like, OK, thank you, all done. Back to the family life.”
Does Serena Ventures invest in Web3?
“Yeah, absolutely. … We can't have a VC company and not have a foot in Web3 at all. Because, you know, it is the future. … But we want to make sure we're really thoughtful about the process. How are we investing in this space? I mean, this was actually created to create more opportunity, and it ended up being completely opposite — a bunch of white guys ended up completely separating it even more.”
Is there any chance we could see her play tennis, again?
“Well, the chances are very high. You come to my house — I got a court.”
How did she respond to a Twitter poll where random dudes said they could beat her on the court?
“Any day, I'm ready. … We should start doing a big challenge. Come over to my house. I'll take them down one at a time.”
