I go up to her afterward and asked, Tell me about this 2 percent I know maybe you misspoke, Ms. Williams recounted. Alison Rapaport is a Partner at Serena Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund founded by tennis superstar Serena Williams in 2014. View select TechCrunch Disrupt content online today You can also reach out to them [email protected], Your email address will not be published. Serena Ventures has a market cap of $14 billion and 29 active investments. Marc started his job in 1983 as a banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Rapaport WebVisit Alison Rapaport Stillman and Stillman Stillmans Baby Registry on Babylist. By highlighting this behaviour and offering support, we are drawing awareness to the systemic issues at hand and showing people in the industry how it can be done. How to Land an Investment From Serena Williams' VC Firm They had one problem: their brand didnt reflect who they were as a firm- or as people. Serena Ventures - The Financial Pandora On our Rise of the Next podcast, Honghao Deng and Jiani Zeng tell us how Butlr, which provides insights into commercial space usage, pivoted during the pandemic. Dog mom . I hurriedly picked a dress, which luckily fit, and jumped on the call. Even with her success and her privilege, she knows shes held to a different standard as a Black woman. To raise a child it takes a village. My path to Serena Ventures started with another sports superstar, ten-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony. But she still finds that VCs ignore products and services made for audiences theyre not familiar with, even those representing massive markets with loyal customers. window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; It's your child. Alison Stillman As a world-class athlete, businesswoman, philanthropist and mother, Serena Williams knows what it takes to win. She is a founding partner at Serena Ventures after joining the capital fund company in 2018. Williams first started investing a little over nine years ago because of what she calls a natural draw to technology and a desire to be involved with all of the startups she was seeing pop up in the space. That was about four years ago, when Williams hired Alison Rapaport Stillman as general partner and they began building a teamwhich just happens to be all women. Learn more about the 20+ companies we've invested in and what's next. } To conclude, Serena Ventures will continue to invest in companies that embrace diverse leadership, individual empowerment, creativity, and opportunity and achieve its goal of making a difference.