Prior to appearing in court at the US Open, Serena Williams took the stage at an ultra-elite gathering of billionaires and corporate dignitaries at the 1640 Society Family Office Wealth Forum, aka “the Davos of the Hamptons” — to discuss talk to her VC Fund.
The tennis legend – who has 23 Grand Slam singles titles and just won her first US Open match this week – recently announced in Vogue that she will be retiring after this year’s tournament to focus on both her family. as her company, Serena Ventures, that she once started. in 2014.
In March, she announced that she had raised $111 million and that she will invest in founders with different points of view.
We learned that Williams spoke to conference attendees about her portfolio of more than 50 companies, including early investments in unicorns like MasterClass and Noom, which impressed seasoned investors, moguls, and machers in attendance, such as Alan Patricof of Apax Partners, short-lived spokesperson of the White House Anthony Scaramucci, Tim Draper, Kent Swig, former Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo, philanthropist Nancy Davis and Joshua Friedman of Canyon Partners.
The annual conference is by invitation only and features powerful family names such as Kennedy, Bush, Ford, Rockefeller, Getty, Johnson, Heinz and even Musk. The website reads: “The Forum brings together prominent families and philanthropists who spend summers in the Hamptons, New York’s greater community, as well as international families from the Middle East, Europe and Asia seeking a private and exclusive location to network, exchange new information & ideas and hear from leaders in the field.”
The speakers told us this year’s event had some elbow-rubbing opportunities. Hillary Latos, editor-in-chief of Impact Wealth Magazine and publishers Adam Weiss and Angela Gorman hosted lunch at Libbie Mugrabi’s watermill house.
Guests also mingled in Michael Loeb’s huge Meadow Lane beachfront mansion. The house was featured in the show “Billions”.
After the conference, VIPs enjoyed a candlelit dinner on the beach at the home of Louise Blouin, who used to run an art media empire with “Art + Auction” and “Modern Painter” called La Dune.
The $63 million home was implicated in bankruptcy court in May and recently appeared on a list of the area’s biggest water guzzlers.