[Flash] Why Serena Williams Mentors Early-Stage Founders

• In 1998, she won her first Grand Slam singles title. She was 17.
• In 2002 she became number one in the world for the first time.
• In 2017 she won the Australian Open while pregnant.
• She holds 7 Wimbledon singles titles.
• Her 31-year career makes her one of the longest-tenured elite athletes in the history of professional tennis.

None of this happened alone. Serena’s career has been shaped and guided by mentors: her father, her coaches, her colleagues, and even her sister, Venus.

As she described it in a Vogue article, “That’s how I started to move so fast up the rankings, because I learned the lessons from Venus’s losses instead of the hard way from my own. If I hadn’t been in Venus’s shadow, I never would be who I am.”

In 2014, eyeing her future retirement (vehemently disliking that word, she calls it “an evolution”) from tennis, Serena started investing in startups.

In 2019, Serena introduced the world to her early-stage venture capital firm, Serena Ventures (recently rebranded as “Starfish Ventures”), focused on identifying and supporting overlooked founders.

In 2022, the firm raised its first institutional venture fund of $111 million. It has since funded 16 unicorn companies, including MasterClass, Impossible Foods, and Noom.

But it wasn’t until she became an investor that she felt the lack of mentorship in her life. Serena told Business Insider, “In hindsight, I feel like I should have had more Mentors.”

Today, she is using her role as a VC to not only invest in but mentor entrepreneurs, open doors for them, and help them avoid mistakes.

Her favorite advice to founders:

• You have to show up 28 hours out of 24.
• Success requires extraordinary commitment.
• You can’t underestimate the power of hard work.
• Become a better storyteller.
• Build trust with people before you need something from them.
• Invest in relationships, not just your ideas
• Success is built on people investing in one another.

Career transitions (or “evolutions”) are fraught with self-doubt, confusion, and loneliness. Even one of the world’s best athletes felt the confidence jolt of traversing a new landscape.

When you find yourself in an evolution, lean into mentorship. Don’t tell me you’re “too busy.”

And when you see others evolving, strategically place yourself in situations where you can offer mentoring by virtue of your title: manager, investor, formal Mentor in a mentoring program.

As a Mentor, Serena isn’t transferring knowledge like she might on the tennis court. She’s transferring resilience.

© 2026. Ann Tardy and MentorLead. www.mentorlead.com. All Rights Reserved.®