Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Serena Williams, Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Daily Show. Thank you for having me. It's truly an
Speaker 1: honor to have you here, especially at a at a
Speaker 1: moment like this in life, you know, because it's not
Speaker 1: every day that I or anybody gets to talk to
Speaker 1: one of the greatest of all time in any aspect.
Speaker 1: You know, You've you've conquered the tennis court, but now
Speaker 1: it seems like Serena is going to be conquering the
Speaker 1: business world in a really meaningful way. Serena Ventures. Congratulations.
Speaker 1: The last I heard you raised a hundred and eleven
Speaker 1: million for for the venture capital firm. Yes, yes we did.
Speaker 1: And you know, I realized I've actually been investing for
Speaker 1: about nine years, and then I realized that, you know,
Speaker 1: the venture capital ecosystem really needs more inclusive people. Really.
Speaker 1: Um when I learned that less than two percent at
Speaker 1: the time of women got funding from obviously money, I
Speaker 1: just honestly I didn't believe that stat and so I
Speaker 1: thought it was necessary for me to enter in a
Speaker 1: legit way, and so I just kept building throwing adventures
Speaker 1: for years and now here we are, we're raising our
Speaker 1: first fund at a hundred eleven million. It's it's a
Speaker 1: really powerful place to begin a journey because you know
Speaker 1: a lot of people, uh, you know on the ground.
Speaker 1: I mean myself included. Many years ago, I didn't know
Speaker 1: what venture capital was. I didn't understand the importance of
Speaker 1: venture capital. I didn't understand that like that becomes the
Speaker 1: seed that essentially grows the tree that is the biggest
Speaker 1: companies that we see on every stock exchange, you know,
Speaker 1: And so if you can get people in on the
Speaker 1: ground there, you can change their lives forever. Why did
Speaker 1: you decide to jump into a world that, I mean
Speaker 1: does not play nice, isn't like the the friendliest environment,
Speaker 1: especially to women and then especially to women of color. Yes,
Speaker 1: So for me, um, it was really important just just that, like,
Speaker 1: it's on the ground floor where you want more diversity
Speaker 1: and where you want more people involved. And that's where
Speaker 1: if you're looking to create you know, wealth or however
Speaker 1: you want to look at it, that's where it starts,
Speaker 1: you know, And it's no better way to start there. Also,
Speaker 1: I love technology. I have a natural of and just
Speaker 1: thing that I just love about technology, and I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to invest in these companies and always wanted to
Speaker 1: just kind of be a part of it, which heince
Speaker 1: my journey that started so long ago, um into inter
Speaker 1: venture and then eventually when you invest in early stage.
Speaker 1: So we do early stage investing, and when you do that,
Speaker 1: you're really able to not only help um, how a
Speaker 1: company thinks and how company performs, but also the first
Speaker 1: hires of a company. Um So those first five, the
Speaker 1: first ten are so key. But if you really help
Speaker 1: a company shape how they hire, then it has a
Speaker 1: a better chance to succeed. But it also has a
Speaker 1: better chance. To think of inviting everyone to the table.
Speaker 1: One of the craziest things I saw, um, I mean
Speaker 1: everyone saw it you responded to on Twitter was the
Speaker 1: New York Times posting about you know, like they had
Speaker 1: an article about your your venture capital firm and the
Speaker 1: money and everything, but then they used your sister's picture.
Speaker 1: What you said was really powerful. But I wondered from
Speaker 1: your point of view, like what was the what was
Speaker 1: the emotion behind it? Like when you hurt, were you disappointed?
Speaker 1: Were you angry? Honestly, UM, me playing tennis and a
Speaker 1: sport that has been predominantly you know, white, especially when
Speaker 1: I first started, you can't allow yourself to get too
Speaker 1: upset about those things and emotionally take that home, especially
Speaker 1: if your mom or you have a family. It's it's
Speaker 1: definitely not something you want to be involved in. You
Speaker 1: definitely have to just you know, just understand, say something
Speaker 1: about it like I did, and let it go. For me,
Speaker 1: it was really just about letting people know that there's
Speaker 1: still that This is why I've started this fund, you know,
Speaker 1: because there's still space that needs to happen. There are
Speaker 1: things that need to happen that we need to grow upon,
Speaker 1: and so that was really important for me. I couldn't
Speaker 1: help feeling from your response that like that was a
Speaker 1: little bit of you know, your mom and dad coming through. Now.
Speaker 1: I haven't met them, but I'm one of the millions
Speaker 1: of people who've watched the movie, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I've met your family because it's true though it's it's
Speaker 1: that's how I felt. But thank you for that. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it felt like, you know, the Williams family has
Speaker 1: this tenacious attitude. The Williams family goes like, hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna address bs when we see it, but we're not
Speaker 1: gonna let a derail us from what we do. And
Speaker 1: I actually have a clip from the movie that's one
Speaker 1: of my one of my favorite moments in the phone
Speaker 1: if we if we can just play that here there
Speaker 1: you are you okay? We know it's your age. I
Speaker 1: used to have to fight every day if it wasn't
Speaker 1: a clue klu Klan or the police or the white
Speaker 1: boys from the next time. Somebody was always beating on
Speaker 1: me for some and I ain't had no daddy to
Speaker 1: stand in their way. It's where they never had no
Speaker 1: respect for Richie Williams, but they're gonna respect, y'all. I
Speaker 1: love that scene. I love it so I love I
Speaker 1: love the portrayal. Yeah, is it weird to see Will
Speaker 1: Smith as your dad? You know it was? It definitely was.
Speaker 1: I've gotten so used to it now that now when
Speaker 1: I say, I'm like, hey dadum, But in the beginning,
Speaker 1: it was definitely weird because it just was just weird.
Speaker 1: But he did such a great job of just becoming
Speaker 1: Richard Williams to a point where it was it was
Speaker 1: actually like I was looking at my dad or really
Speaker 1: remembering those moments when um, when we were together and
Speaker 1: when we were younger, and um, it's really amazing how
Speaker 1: he everything that he did in that film. It does
Speaker 1: feel like King Richard was just the origin story for
Speaker 1: you know, a burgeoning world, like you know the sequels.
Speaker 1: Because when the movie ends, and I won't spoil a
Speaker 1: few people haven't seen it, all I want to do
Speaker 1: is see your movie now. I want to see your
Speaker 1: sister's movie. I want to see your fact. Yeah. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: what what do you mean this is it? I want
Speaker 1: to wait. I couldn't believe it was over. I thought
Speaker 1: it was just getting started. Um, that journey is a
Speaker 1: really special one. I would love to know how your
Speaker 1: family managed to keep the love between and your sister
Speaker 1: so intense, even when there were so many moments for
Speaker 1: the two of you to have resentment towards each other
Speaker 1: because you don't you love each other, you support each other,
Speaker 1: and yet you compete against each other. Mm hmmm. And
Speaker 1: that's really important because again, like when you asked me
Speaker 1: about the New York Times piece, it was like, well,
Speaker 1: we can't allow that to affect our lives. And we
Speaker 1: grew up and we still are extremely spiritual people, and
Speaker 1: um really have a great grind, great base of faith,
Speaker 1: and we know that we have so much more to
Speaker 1: look forward to and then we also know that at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, like tennis a last you know,
Speaker 1: ten years, twenty years or whatever, but family lasts forever.
Speaker 1: And even when I'm playing my sister, I always think, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is just for this moment, this is just for
Speaker 1: this day, and even if you know, we're emotional about
Speaker 1: it for a couple of days later, like she's always
Speaker 1: going to be my flesh and bud and nothing else
Speaker 1: is going to ever come in between that. And so
Speaker 1: it was it's really important for um us to kind
Speaker 1: of feel that and just why so much just kind
Speaker 1: of roll off our shoulders and we just kind of
Speaker 1: just just go with it. UM. I have a few
Speaker 1: personal UM, I have a few personal questions just as
Speaker 1: a fan from my side. So number one, who, so,
Speaker 1: who's responsible for your backhand? We didn't really get the
Speaker 1: onswer in the movie. I mean, your mom claims the credit,
Speaker 1: your dad wants to claim the credit. Who made the
Speaker 1: serena backhand? Um, it was definitely a combination of both.
Speaker 1: But I spent a lot of time on the court
Speaker 1: with my mom growing up. Um, when I was in
Speaker 1: that age, but when I got a little older, it
Speaker 1: was just I spend more time with my dad. So
Speaker 1: it's definitely a mix, okay. And then with regards to
Speaker 1: your daughter, she has two parents who come from extremely
Speaker 1: different worlds. I mean, the world's are emerging now, funny enough,
Speaker 1: but you know, you've got the tech dad and then
Speaker 1: you've got like the superstar sports mom. What's the thing
Speaker 1: that she sort of gravitates towards more? If you put
Speaker 1: like a computer in front of her or a tennis record,
Speaker 1: what's the first thing she'd grab? Well, probably the computer
Speaker 1: because it has you know, all her little TV shows
Speaker 1: on it and you know, the movie, so definitely that. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm just I'm a fan of tennis
Speaker 1: and I definitely root for her to play, but also
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, it could be a lot of pressure,
Speaker 1: so definitely looking at her playing different sports, and you know,
Speaker 1: we haven't quite decided, and it's so it's so interesting
Speaker 1: now how parents I could say, I think think of
Speaker 1: it because it's like, you know, my parents had a
Speaker 1: whole plan and we're just like, well, you know, we'll
Speaker 1: see if she wants to do this. So it's a
Speaker 1: completely different thing. And yeah, that's just I don't Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, my dad and my mom were really amazing,
Speaker 1: and personally, I don't know if I could have done it.
Speaker 1: I think you. I think you can do it because
Speaker 1: you're a product of this. I think you're doing it already.
Speaker 1: Serena Williams, thank you for joining me on the show.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on everything you've done venture capital, conquering the court um,
Speaker 1: Congrats to your family, and thank you for being here
Speaker 1: with us. Thank you, thank you for having me. King
Speaker 1: Richard is available in select theaters, on v O, D
Speaker 1: and of course DVD. Watch The Daily Show weeknight Central
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