Serena Williams delivered a bold statement during a Q&A session about her work in venture capital at the Milken Institute conference.
“This part of my career is going to be much bigger than anything I’ve ever done before,” the tennis great said confidently from the stage at the Beverly Hilton hotel as she discussed her myriad investment ventures that flow through her Starfire banner.
Williams, who has been a trailblazer for female athletes since she was a teenager, discussed her love of investing and the work of nurturing founders and promising ventures in her wide-ranging conversation with Jason Kelly, a Bloomberg News correspondent and host of “The Deal” sports business podcast.
Williams started out as an angel investor. But as she grew to understand the eco-system, she realized she wanted Starfire to play a bigger role. And she approached it like an athlete in training.
“I spent at least three years of getting to know founders, getting to know people, getting to know companies, investing a lot more, building up my cadence, building up my portfolio,” Williams said. “And then we launched our first fund with just years of being disciplined, going through the process and understanding what we wanted to do,” Williams said. “VC is a game of who do you know.”
