Serena Williams—one of TIME’s 100 most influential people this year—attended the TIME100 Gala in New York City last night in a look worthy of conversation.

Williams’s black Stella McCartney dress at the April 24 event was covered in cutouts; she accessorized with sheer black gloves, a statement diamond necklace, and drop earrings. Joining the tennis champion at the event, which celebrated TIME’s aforementioned list of the 100 most influential people globally, were celebrities like Demi Moore, Scarlett Johansson, Blake Lively, Kristen Bell, and Simone Biles, who won the TIME Impact Award at the gala. The event was hosted by Snoop Dogg, and Ed Sheeran and Myles Smith performed for the star-studded crowd.

In her accompanying TIME profile—released on April 16—Williams reflected on her numerous new business ventures (for example: she’s joining the ownership group of the WNBA’s expansion team Toronto Tempo) but admitted she missed tennis, the sport she remains so passionate about.

“I miss it a lot, with all my heart,” she told the outlet. “I miss it because I’m healthy. If I couldn’t walk, or if I was so out of it, I wouldn’t miss it as much.”

Though Williams eschewed ever really using the word “retirement” to describe her next chapter—she preferred the term “evolving away from tennis,” TIME reported—she told the publication that being present for daughters Olympia, 7, and Adira, 1 (whom she shares with husband Alexis Ohanian) is most important. “I just can’t peel myself away from these children,” she said. “Another reason I had to transition was because I wanted to have more kids. And I look at Adira and I’m like, ‘Was it worth it?’ I literally thought about it the other day. I was like, ‘Yeah, it was definitely worth it.’”

Over the past 15 years, TIME reported, Williams has put her own money into more than 120 companies, 14 of them valued at $1 billion or more. Her company, Serena Ventures, has raised over $100 million of outside capital to invest in more than 30 companies just since 2021. She also signed on as an executive producer of the Netflix adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best selling novel Carrie Soto Is Back, about a tennis champion who comes out of retirement to reclaim her Grand Slam record. She also founded WYN Beauty, which launched in April 2024, one year ago. But, as she recently told People about founding businesses, “I’m done! I’m not launching anything else like this. I just am happy doing WYN Beauty. And I’m happy being a mom and I’m happy with my venture company, and that’s a lot. We’re good!”

When asked how founding WYN Beauty has influenced the way she speaks to her daughters about beauty, Williams said, “It’s super important for me to share that beauty is definitely on the inside. And then anything externally is just an enhancement of who you are. So our beauty and what we do at WYN Beauty enhances your inside beauty.”

Her love of tennis shows up even in her beauty company’s packaging, which is tennis ball green. Williams told People the decision “made sense and is authentic to my story. [The color] represents a lot of energy to me when you’re holding it in your hands. It means a lot to me because I will always love tennis.”

The decision to get into the beauty space was driven by “When I would travel to places 20 years ago before 40 shades of foundation existed, I had to be the biggest advocate for my makeup. I couldn’t rely on makeup artists to have my color, and I had to learn to do my own makeup. I never found a skin tint that I truly loved and actually worked, so I knew I needed to create something.”

As busy as she is, nothing matters more than her family. In 2022, Williams told TIME she was stepping away from tennis, in part, to evolve as a mom: “I think I’m good at it,” she said. “But I want to explore if I can be great at it.”

Now, three years later, “I’m a wonderful mom,” Williams said. “I think we, as women, don’t give ourselves credit, but I’m a great mom. I really am. I do everything. I’m the freaking room mom at Olympia’s school this year.”