Since retiring from tennis, Serena Williams has joined the startup space through her venture capitalist fund, Serena Ventures. Williams uses her business knowledge to invest in companies founded by women and other underrepresented groups and uses her social platforms to promote other like-minded brands.
The American tennis legend displayed several PR hampers that she received from multiple brands on her Instagram Stories. “Wondermind”, co-founded by pop star Selena Gomez, was among these companies to receive social media validation from the 23-time Grand Slam winner.
Serena showed her 17.3 million followers the journals, notepads, and post-its that the hamper consisted of while talking about her association with the brand. The 43-year-old invested in the company with the virtue of sharing the same opinions regarding mental health importance as Gomez.
“I invested in this company called Wondermind. Now, Wondermind is also co-founded by Selena Gomez and we know how much she believes in mental health as well as I do… It is really cool that you can write in this journal. Doesn’t matter who you are, what you are doing, sometimes it’s often good to give your thoughts on paper. It just kind of releases and helps you just do anything. I love this – mental note,” Serena said in her IG Story.
Serena has been a huge advocate for mental well-being even before athletes would openly speak about it. This also allows her partnership with “Wondermind” to be organic, working towards the common goal of helping individuals struggling with their mental health.
Serena invested $5 million in Gomez’s venture
Serena invested $5 million in “Wondermind” in August 2022. It was during an interview with the co-founder that Serena disclosed her battle with mental health struggles, wanting her to make a positive impact in others’ lives.
“I did this years ago, before even mental health was a topic among everyone’s mind. It was more just like, ‘Alright, I’m shutting myself down today.’ Just subconsciously, it was something I’ve always done. It’s so important to just put yourself first, especially mentally… I have serious boundaries and I don’t let anyone cross those boundaries,” Serena told Gomez.
Since Serena joined the group of investors, “Wondermind” has witnessed a massive increase in social media followers and is now one of the major players in the mental health space.
Both these influential women have a huge fan following across the globe. And they are using their platform responsibly to help benefit others.