Serena Williams doesn’t just defy convention on the tennis court. She’s also applying her competitive mindset to entrepreneurship and venture investing, recently rebranding her firm from Serena Ventures to Starfire Ventures. Williams discusses the investment strategy that has led to 16 unicorns now in her portfolio, what she looks for in founders, and how partnerships with companies from Nike to Ro fit into her broader vision.
This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response recorded live at the Reckitt Catalyst event in Palm Beach, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
You’re known for your sense of culture and fashion and also, of course, as a tremendous athlete. Fewer people know about Serena Ventures, your business and investing arm.
We’re now Starfire Ventures.
Starfire Ventures.
We’ve just rebranded ourselves. . . . I felt like Serena Ventures is great, but I wanted it to be bigger than me. There are so many amazing people on the team, and there’s so much that we do. I felt like when you put a name on something, it can limit what you do. I want it to live on. I want this to be something that people look at years and years from now . . .
You don’t think the name Serena is going to live on? Surely it will.
It’s going to live on in a different way. I think it just gives us some freedom to do so much more. And we kept the SV, so it’s still SV, because we also internally always say “SV.”
So Starfire has backed something like 16 unicorns. Do you have an overarching philosophy as an investor, or is it more intuitive, instinctive?
Oh, it’s a little bit of both, but I would say it’s 90% philosophy. . . . I do a lot on instinct, but I think my partner is definitely more “Let’s follow things to a T,” which is great. So we make a really good team in that way.
When you and I were on stage with Mark Parker at a Fast Company event, you quipped that one day you would be the CEO of Nike.
Did I say that?
You did.
That’s so crazy.
You did.
Don’t tell Elliot [Hill, Nike’s CEO] that.
So operating a big brand is no longer your aspiration? You like being an investor more?
I wouldn’t write that off, but I could not live in Portland. So I think I may have spoken too soon.
The weather there is just not up to your Southern Florida standards.
No. I need sun. But one keyword that you said was quip, so clearly I wasn’t serious about that.
Is investing more in keeping with your spirit—with your goals—than being an operator?
I’ve loved that for years. Oh my gosh, I think my first investment was 14 or 15 years ago. Now we’re institutionalized, with institutional investors on our cap table. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also rewarding when you see good results.
So today we’re at the Reckitt Catalyst Program in Florida. You’re the inaugural entrepreneur-in-residence.
Yes.
Mentoring a group of founders who are here, you’ve said being a mentor helps you as much as it helps them. Are there things you’ve learned in the time down here?
What I do every day in VC, we don’t necessarily see a lot of companies and founders like this that are solving so many problems for underrepresented people. And it’s such a feel-good experience. Every now and then, you’ll get a company in the portfolio, like one in our portfolio is Esusu, that does feel good, does do good, and is still a unicorn. Those are amazing.
But realistically, you don’t see those every single day. We want to win. We want to make money for our LPs. But at the same time, it’s so good to be a part of something like Reckitt Catalyst. It’s just so exciting to be part of a bigger story and to help people.
You mentioned that Reckitt’s got an emphasis on underrepresented founders. At SV, 70% or something of your portfolio is women or people of color as founders. How much of that is about financial calculation, that there’s a particular opportunity because those communities aren’t being seen? And how much of it is a broader imperative for you?
It’s a broader imperative. We see different companies that most people don’t get to see because they don’t open the doors. So our team, and the way I’ve hired our team, means a lot more women do feel comfortable coming to us. And by the way, a lot of those companies are doing very well right now. They wouldn’t have the opportunity to do well if we weren’t on their cap table.
We invest in everyone. We invest in people who look like you. We invest in people who look like me. It’s just that we do see a lot of women and a lot of underrepresented founders because they know that we’ll hear their story. And we don’t invest in all of them. . . . We are only investing in winners. If we don’t feel the company is going to return our fund, we’re not going to invest in them. That’s just how we look at it.
This is not philanthropy.
No, this isn’t philanthropy. But women aren’t doing business as philanthropy, and people of color aren’t either. We’re doing business to make money. And it’s sad, but some people don’t understand that.
It sounds like there’s opportunity there because other investors maybe aren’t open to these kinds of founders.
It’s not that they’re not open to that. I wouldn’t necessarily put another investor down. They just subconsciously don’t see it, or they subconsciously wipe it out. They’re just not thinking about it. But we’re thinking about everything. We’re thinking about the next billion-dollar company, the next trillion-dollar company, and how to be on those cap tables as well.
So you’ve got your investing work, SV, and your brand deals. And you’ve got your husband, and you’ve got your daughters. And amid all that, you’re returning to professional tennis. How do you make—
Very, very sporadically.
Very sporadically?
Maybe I’m here, maybe I’m there. Who knows? Very sporadically.
How do you decide how to spend your time?
I’m a very organized person. I’m an A-type personality. Most of my time is with Starfire, Serena Ventures. That’s where I spend 90% of my time. Outside of my kids, when I’m not with my children as a mom, I would say most of my time is spent with Ventures. But now, with my partner (Beth Ferreira) at SV, I have a lot more time to do other things, like be more with my kids.
And then tennis, which has been really fun. It’s good to have those opportunities again.
As a type A, organized person, do you have a structure you use?
I do. I realize now I have a lot of boundaries, time boundaries. Even in training, when I went back for Wimbledon, I was like, listen, I’m willing to put this in: an hour here, two hours there. And that’s that. What happens, happens. This is what I’m willing to do. I’m not going back out there to win Grand Slams. I have a full-time job. But this is what I’m willing to do, and this is how I’m willing to show up.
It would have worked if my knee didn’t swell. But I had fun. It was about putting boundaries in place because I’m a mom now, and I think more than anything, my kids need me.
And that discipline?
I’m scheduled out. I’m scheduled out to the hour.
I was thinking of the Reckitt folks who you’re mentoring, teaching them to be disciplined too. Discipline has always been part of your life.
Yeah, discipline and boundaries. . . . This is the time I need to put into my VC. This is the time I need to put into my kids. And those take a lot more than other things. So you’re setting those priorities.