Good morning. How do the leadership skills that are needed to thrive at the highest level of sports translate to business? One person who’s thought about that a lot is Serena Williams. She launched her VC firm more than a decade ago, recently changing the name from Serena Ventures to Starfire Ventures, and has launched other businesses. She’s experienced success as an early investor in companies like Coinbase, MasterClass, and Impossible Foods. And she’s also dealt with the failure of her Wyn Beauty and S by Serena fashion labels that are no longer in operation. I recently spoke with the tennis star while she was mentoring young founders in the Reckitt Catalyst program as the first entrepreneur-in-residence for the British multinational.
As a celebrity, one of Serena’s biggest challenges is how to take the spotlight off herself. The bigger the name or gap in achievement, the more important it is to build trust. Talking to fans and mentoring founders are different skills. “I’ve had to learn mentorship. I never really thought about it until I stepped into this role,” she told me. One of the key lessons was “leaning into being more accessible, obviously with time, but also letting people understand that they can call me, text me, and reach each other because we have a common goal of making this business succeed.”
