When Serena Williams sets her mind on a vision, it transforms into greatness.
Before the tennis champion’s retirement in 2022, she launched Serena Ventures in 2014. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Williams founded her VC firm after learning of the alarmingly low amount of venture capital that goes to women founders, with Black and brown founders receiving even less funds.
“I learned that less than 2% of all VC money went to women,” Williams shared via TikTok. “And when I first heard that, I actually thought it was a misquote. I thought, ‘Well, they can’t be real.’ Like, we’re talking about trillions of dollars, and what do you mean less than 2% of that goes to women?…I learned that when I first started investing, I learned that actually was true and that was something that was happening. And so I knew right then and there that one day I wanted to raise a fund or raise money and invest in women.”
Under Williams’ mission, the breakdown of Serena Ventures’ investments is 79% underrepresented founders, 54% women founders, 47% Black founders, and 11% Latino founders, per the VC firm’s website. In addition, as AFROTECH™ previously told you, the portfolio includes 14 companies that are now unicorns, as of this writing.
During the span of investing in founders who often get the short end of the stick, Williams also took the time to bet on herself. On July 6, 2024, Williams joined the 2024 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture presented by Coca-Cola for Beautycon’s “Passion to Profit” panel series. During the panel moderated by Cari Champion, sports journalist, and Sophia Dennis, BeautyCon’s lead of programming and brand strategy, Williams shared about her journey of creating WYN BEAUTY, which launched in 2024 but was about six years in the making. While the launch of the brand is new, Williams’ interest in becoming a beauty founder isn’t from left field, she says, as she has always been intrigued by the industry since her days growing up in Compton, CA.
“You kind of had to be fabulous growing up in Compton,” Williams joked during her “Passion to Profit” panel at the 2024 ESSENCE Festival.
She added, “My mom was always someone that I looked up to, and she didn’t have a lot of time for beauty, but the little time that she did have she always was presentable. She always looked really nice. I think that made a lasting effect. I’ve always just been into [beauty]…It’s always something that I’ve just been truly so passionate about.”
Williams’ interest grew even more as she navigated wearing makeup on the tennis court. Before fully conceptualizing WYN BEAUTY, the idea was sparked during her tennis career when she was on the hunt for makeup products that would last her throughout her games. Williams says that at the time she created her own version of a skin tint that matched her skin color before she actually knew what the product was.
“Years and years ago, I didn’t know it was called tinted moisturizer, but that’s kind of what I was doing,” Williams said.
Now, WYN BEAUTY offers clean, long-lasting makeup products for people who live active lives like herself. What’s more, as for representation, the vegan makeup brand features 91 shades across 10 products for the face, lips, and eyes, per a press release. Similar to Serena Ventures, Williams wanted to ensure that diversity was at the forefront of WYN BEAUTY.
“Obviously, I wanted something that could represent me — the way I look, my skin color,” Williams said. “And everyone out there as well. People that look like me and also people that don’t. I wanted to make sure that it’s kind of built like my VC company with diversity.”
She continued, “In addition to that, for me it’s super important to have women involved in the backend… and people that share my passion for makeup and people that understand my idea of active beauty, which is just something that’s fresh in the market, and that’s totally different.”
