The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Serena Williams - Building Serena Ventures & Prioritizing Family

Episode Date: March 30, 2022

Legendary tennis champion and entrepreneur Serena Williams discusses overcoming adversity while building her venture capital firm Serena Ventures, being an executive producer on “King Richard,” and the importance of family.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Serena Williams, welcome to the Daily Show. Thank you for having me. It's truly an honor to have you here, especially at a moment like this in life, you know, because it's not every day that I or anybody gets to talk to one of the greatest of all time in any aspect, you know, you've conquered the tennis court. But now, it seems like Serena is going to be conquering the business world in a really meaningful way. Serena Ventures. Congratulations, the last I heard, you raised, is it $111 million for the venture

capital firm? Yes, yes, we did. And you know, I realized, I've actually been investing for about nine years, and then I realized that, you know, the venture capital ecosystem really needs more inclusive people, really. When I learned that less than 2% at the time of women got funding from all VC money, I just, honestly, I didn't believe that stat, and so I thought it was necessary for me to enter in a legit way. And so I just kept building Serena Ventures for years, and now here we are. We're raising our first fund at $111 million.

It's a really powerful place to begin a journey, because, you know, a lot of people, you know, on the ground, I mean, myself included, many years ago, I didn't understand the importance of venture capital. I didn't understand that like that becomes the seed that essentially grows the tree that is the biggest companies that we see on every stock exchange, you know? And so if you can get people in on the ground there, you can change their lives forever. Why did you decide to jump into a world that, I mean, does not play nice, isn't like the friendliest environment, especially to women, then especially to women of color. Yeah, so for me, it was really important just that. Like, it's on the ground floor where you want more diversity and where you want more people involved. And that's where if you're looking to create, you know, wealth or however you want to look at it, that's where it starts, you know, and it's no better way to start there. Also, I love technology. I have a natural love and just thing that I just love about technology.

And I've always wanted to invest in these companies and always wanted to just kind of be a part of it, which hints my journey that started so long ago into venture. And then eventually, when you invest in early stage investing, and when you do that, you're really able to not only help how a company thinks and how a company performs, but also the first hires of a company. So those first five, the first ten are so key, but if you really help a company shape how they hire, then it has a better chance to succeed, but it also has a better chance to think of inviting everyone to the table. One of the craziest things I saw, I mean, everyone saw it you responded to on Twitter,

was the New York Times posting about, you know, like, they had an article about your venture capital firm and the money and everything, but then they used your sister's picture. What you said was really powerful, but I wondered from your point, what the the their their their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, the used your sister's picture. What you said was really powerful, but I wondered from your point of view, like, what was the emotion behind it? Like, were you hurt? Were you disappointed? Were you angry? Well, honestly, me playing tennis in a sport that has been predominantly, you know, white, especially,

their te. to be a teat, their to get too upset about those things and emotionally take that home, especially if you're a mom or you have a family. It's definitely not something you want to be involved in. You definitely have to just, you know, just understand, say something about it, like I did and let it go. For me, it was really just about letting people know that there's still, this is why I started this fund, you know, because there's still space that needs to happen. There are things that need to happen that we need to grow upon. And so that was really important for me.

I couldn't help feeling from your response that like, that was a little bit of, you know, your mom and dad coming through. Now, I haven't met them, but I'm one of the millions of people who thatthe movie and I feel like I've met your family because it's true though it's it's how I felt but thank you for that it's it's it felt like you know the Williams family has this tenacious attitude the Williams family goes like hey we're gonna address BS when we see it but we're not going to let it derail us from what we do and I actually have a clip from the movie that's one of my one of my favorite moments the the the the the the the the th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. thi. thi. thi. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. the th. th. th. th. th. the th. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. theean. theeean. te. te. tea. tea. tea. tea. te. the. the. th one of my favorite moments in the film. If we can just play that here. Now you, are you okay?

When I was your age, I used to have to fight every day. If it wasn't the Ku Klut Klan or the police or the white boys from the next time, somebody was always beaten on me for something. And I ain't had no daddy to stand in their way. This world ain't never had no respect for Richie Williams. But they gonna respect y'all. I love that scene. I love it so, I love, I love the portrayal. Yeah. Is it weird to see Will Smith as your dad? You know it was. It definitely was. I've gotten so used to it now, but now when I see him, I'm like, hey dad.

But in the beginning, it was definitely weird because it just was just weird. But he did such a great job of just becoming Richard Williams to a point where it was, it was actually like I was looking at my dad or really remembering those moments when, when we were together.................................................... to. to. to. to. to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, I, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the, the, I, the, I, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I, the, the, the, they. they. they. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. to. to. to a point where it was it was actually like I was looking at my dad or really remembering those moments when we were together and when we were younger and it was it's really amazing how he everything that he did in that film. It does feel like King Richard was just the origin story for you know a burgeoning world like you know the sequels because when the movie ends and I won't spoil it for people who haven't seen it all I want to see your movie the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. I th. I th. I th. I to to to th. I to thi thi th. I'm thi thi thi. I thi. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm to to teeei. I'm toeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. I'm thi. I'm th sequel, because when the movie ends, and I won't spoil if you haven't seen it, all I want to do is see your movie now.

I want to see your sister's movie. I want to see your family. Yeah, I'm like, wait, wait, wait, what do you mean? This is it? Wait, I thoubent. love to know how your family managed to keep the love between and your sister so intense even when there were so many moments for the two of you to have resentment towards each other because you don't you love each other you

support each other and yet you compete against each other. And that's really important because again like when you asked me about the New York Times piece it was like well we can't allow that to affect our lives and we still are extremely spiritual people and really have a great grind, great base of faith. And we know that we have so much more to look forward to. And then we also know that at the end of the day, like tennis, a last, you know, 10 years, 20 years or whatever, but family lasts forever.

And even when I'm playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing playing I th playing I'm playing I'm playing I'm playing I'm playing I'm playing I'm playing I'm playing I'm playing I'm playing I even when I'm playing my sister, I always think, okay, this is just for this moment, this just for this day. And even if, you know, we're emotional about it for a couple days later, like, she's always gonna be my flesh and blood and nothing else is going to ever come in between that. And so it was, it's really important for us to kind of fill that and just why so much just kind of roll off our shoulders and we just kind of just go with it.

I have a few personal questions. While we can assume it. I have a few personal questions, just as a fan from my side. So number one, so who's responsible for your backhand? We didn't really get the answer in the movie. I mean, your mom claims the credit. Who made the Serena backhand? It was definitely a combination of both, but I spent a lot of time on the court with my mom growing up

when I was in that age, but when I got a little older, it was just, I was spending more time with my dad, so it's definitely a mix. Okay, and then with merging now, funny enough, but you know, you've got the tech dad and then you've got like the superstar sports mom. What's the thing that she sort of gravitates towards more? If you put like a computer in front of her or a tennis racket, what's the first thing she'd grab? Well, probably the computer because it has, you know, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, the, their, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, thi, thi, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th.......... th. th... th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, thea.ea.s.a.ea.a.a.a. And, the. And, the, the, the. And, the, the. And, th. And, the movies so definitely that.

But you know I'm just I'm a fan of tennis and I definitely root for her to play but also I'm like you know it could be a lot of pressure so definitely looking at her playing different sports and you know we haven't quite decided and it's so it's so interesting now how parents I could say I think think of it because it's like you know my parents had a whole plan and we're just like well you know we'll we we'll we we we'll we we we we we we we we we'll th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th. th. th. thi thi thi th. th. th. th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. th. I'm th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. th. I'm th. thee. the. the. the. I'm theee. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. I'm th. it, because it's like, you know, my parents had a whole plan and we're just like, well, you know, we'll see if she wants to do this so it's a completely different thing. And yeah, that's just, I don't know, my dad and my mom were really amazing.

And personally, I don't know if I could have done it. I think you can do it because you're a product of theirs. I think you're doing it already. Serena Williams, thank you for joining me on the show. Congratulations on everything you've done, venture capital, conquering the court. Um, congrats to your family and thank you for being here with us. Thank you. Thank you for having me. King Richard is available in select theaters on V Week Nights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central Podcast.

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Do Nice Guys Really Finish Last. I'm Tim Harford, host of the Cautionary Tales podcast, and I'm exploring that very question. Join me for my new miniseries on the Art of Fairness. From New York to Tahiti will examine villains undone by their villainy. Monstrous, self-devaring egos and accounts of the extraordinary power of decency. Listen on the IHart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.