Serena Williams Plans Post-Tennis ‘Second Career’ With VC Firm

When it comes to tennis, Serena Williams is the unquestioned GOAT. The 23-time Grand Slam champion has nothing left to prove. Of course, that doesn’t stop commentators from constantly bringing up her age every time she steps on the court. Yes, she’s 40, but it turns out, that’s not actually old. In fact, Serena has now started a whole new “second career.”

According to People, the four-time Olympic gold medalist now counts tennis as a small part of her busy day. She also has to manage her new VC firm, Serena Ventures, and most importantly, be a mom to four-year-old, Olympia.

“Now when I prepare for a tournament, I practice in the morning, I take VC calls in the afternoon and then I spend time with Olympia, and that didn’t happen five years ago,” the tennis superstar said.

This move into the venture capital world isn’t that surprising as Serena has always been one of the most entrepreneurial athletes in sports. In the past, she’s had sneaker and clothing lines, as well as numerous high-profile endorsements. It doesn’t matter how long she stays away from the court, whenever she comes back, fans around the world always go crazy for her.

One of the reasons the seven-time Wimbledon champion started Serena Ventures was to bring more diversity to the VC space and give opportunities to companies that might have difficulty making it through the door at other firms.

“We invest in women, we invest in women of color, we invest in people of color,” she said. “A lot of these companies talk about diversity, but they just talk about it. It’s because it’s a good subject that they bring up, but they don’t really do a lot of things about it. And so at Serena Ventures we do, we talk about it. We be about it.”

Following her dramatic first-round exit from Wimbledon, Serena is set to make her return to the WTA tour at the National Bank Open in Toronto. The US Open warm-up takes place Aug. 5-14.

The six-time US Open champion is chasing a record-tying 24th Grand Slam. Playing in Toronto certainly makes it seem like she’s really going for it in New York. I would never bet against Serena, but based on the talent of the top women’s tennis players in the world, she’s definitely looking at an extremely difficult road.