After 23 Grand Slam titles, Serna Williams has announced she is retiring from tennis, now everyone is wondering what the sports star might do next.
Two days ago the 40-year-old tennis ace announced, via Vogue, she would be retiring from the sport in which she made her name and wealth.
Serena Williams Retired
In an ‘in her own words’ feature with the glossy mag, Serena said she was ‘reluctant to admit’ she has to ‘move on from playing tennis’, however she went on to say she prefers the word ‘evolution’ to ‘retirement’.
She said: ‘I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people.
‘Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me. A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.
‘But I’ve been reluctant to admit to myself or anyone else that I have to move on from playing tennis.’
Serena said she struggled with even discussing the idea of retirement with her husband Alexis, and retirement isn’t something she’s even looked forward to.
‘I can’t even have this conversation with my mom and dad,’ she explained. ‘It’s like it’s not real until you say it out loud. It comes up, I get an uncomfortable lump in my throat, and I start to cry.
‘The only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist! One thing I’m not going to do is sugarcoat this. I know that a lot of people are excited about and look forward to retiring, and I really wish I felt that way.’
What might Serena Williams do next?
Serena hasn’t specifically said what she planned to do next, but she talked passionately about her business Serena Ventures.
She said: ‘In my own life, the balance has been slowly shifting toward Serena Ventures. I always say that I’m a sponge: At night I go to bed and I squeeze myself out so that the next day I can take up as much new information as I can.
‘Every morning, I’m so excited to walk downstairs to my office and jump onto Zooms and start reviewing decks of companies we’re considering investing in. We’re a small but growing firm of six people scattered between Florida, where I mainly live, Texas, and California.
‘I started investing nine years ago, and I really fell in love with early stage, whether it’s pre-seed funding, where you’re investing in just an idea, or seed, where the idea has already been turned into a product. I wrote one of the very first checks for MasterClass.’
Serena Ventures manages a portfolio of more than 60 angel investments, including fintech companies Propel and Cointracker and consumer product companies Billie and Daily Harvest. The company says 76% of the founders it backs are from under-represented backgrounds, according to Reuters.
Serena Williams Net Worth
After spending nearly her whole life as a tennis ace and with her business ventures Serena is entering retirement with an eye-watering net worth.
According to Celebrity Net Worth she’s worth a staggering $250 million. Forbes put her on the list of America’s richest self-made women, at No. 90 with her net worth.