Serena Williams shares the story of her success in raising 111 million dollars (won, won, won) for her first fund at Serena Ventures. They’ve invested in about 24 companies in the Seed and Pre-seed stages and also provide follow-on capital. Serena Williams shares her story of starting a fund at Inbound with Kara Swisher. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Kara: From your perspective, what are you looking for in companies? And I know in this fund, you’re focusing on women and marginalized groups that don’t get as much money and investment. The numbers are crazy and going down.
Serena: I was in the room with a lot of people who didn’t look like me, and that’s when I learned that less than two percent of women are getting VC funding. I thought it was a misquote I thought it was a mistake. I thought, oh my god, how could they be on stage and make such a crazy mistake? And I think that everyone should have that reaction when they hear these numbers of how many women are getting investments. They should have the same reaction I had, which is that it can be true someone is making a mistake, an embarrassing mistake.
When I found out that was true, I knew that for me, it starts at the top of the funnel. It starts on the cap table, too, because if women and people of color are not on your cap table*, why would you invest in them? So, what I wanted to do with my first fund and, in general, with my company was to bring true diversity. We invest in everyone. We invest in great companies, and that’s my goal.
Our thesis is to invest in the everyday lives of everyday people. So we want to invest in companies that are changing people’s lives. We look for B2B, SaaS, FinTech.
*[A cap table (or capitalization table) is a document, like a spreadsheet or a table, that details who owns a company. It lists all the securities or number of company shares including stock, convertible notes, warrants, and equity ownership grants.]
Kara: How do you assess the success of your companies?
Serena: I only know one way to assess their success: If they are a Unicorn*, let’s talk about being successful. And that’s very hard because venture is a long game, seven to ten years. So for me, understanding that the majority of your companies won’t make it is a really hard pill to swallow.
We do have a unicorn in our fund. It’s a company called Esusu that solves problems for renters and rentees.
*[In business, a Unicorn is a startup company valued at over $1 billion and is privately owned.]
At the end of the day, I want to be successful, but I also want to make a huge impact. So, for me, sometimes it is taking a step back and saying, “This is our thesis; this is what we want to do, but that doesn’t mean it has to be 100% of the fund.”
Kara: And what about doing stuff yourself? You’ve done fashion things, you’ve done all kinds of things. Is there a startup that you would like to start right now? Are you doing AI stuff? Serena AI?
Serena: No, no more startups for me. Investing in founders and talking to founders, I always say the last thing I want to do is have a startup. Like, yuck. And then I say, wait, Sernea Ventures is a startup. It is a lot of work. Especially with the first fund, and then the hiring, and everything. It took 28 of my 24 hours out of the day, and it is very, very exhausting and very difficult. I’m like, how’d I get involved in a startup?
And then I started WYN Beauty, which is out and we are very proud of, and I’m like, how am I involved in another startup? I desperately don’t want to be a founder, but I think I am a serial entrepreneur. And I think I will always be a serial founder. Maybe there will be a Serena AI someday. I’ve learned ‘Never Say Never’.
Kara: My last question, being a champion, advice for this group?
Serena: I feel like everybody is a champion. You don’t have to be winning Wimbledon or winning a gold medal to be a champion. I mean, I did that too. [Kara: You can say it. You won Wimbledon.]
A champion is just being there for your kids. Also, being a champion means understanding that you can’t be a champion every single day. There’s no way you can win every single day. God, I need to take this advice myself. But it’s really about giving your best effort and doing your best on that single day. Some days, you’ll give a better effort, right? But some days, just waking up is a big effort, so you have to just give what you can on that day.
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