Tennis. Philanthropy. Business. Equality. Serena. G.O.A.T.

She's been called the greatest tennis player of all time but serena williams isn’t just a sports powerhouse, she’s also a game changer for business and equality too.

- Kara Byers

Serena Williams has been blazing trails for more than two decades. When it comes to tennis, she’s described as the greatest player of all time, an accolade backed up by her impressive trophy collection: so far, she’s won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 23 singles – a record for the Open era – plus four Olympic gold medals.

And Serena, who long ago ascended into the pantheon of stars known by a single name, is fast becoming a vanguard of business too. The first-ever female athlete to be included in the Forbes annual list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, she’s worth a reported US$225 million (A$370 million), less than half of which comes from her prize winnings. Serena is a goddess of all things.

Since their debut as professional tennis players in the mid 1990s, Serena and her sister Venus have changed the way the game is played by pushing the limits of their physical prowess and mental acumen, unconstrained by the artificial limits of gender previously imposed on women. Serena is the physical embodiment of being the change she wants to see in the world and it shows in her business ventures as much as on the court.

“I was told so many times that I wasn’t going to be a good tennis player but look at me now,” she says. “Sometimes, when people tell me ‘no,’ I almost like it because it gets me fired up and ready to say, ‘Yes, I can do this.’”

At last count, Serena has invested in over 34 different startups and last year she formally launched Serena Ventures, her own venture capital company. In an interview with Forbes, she explained the idea behind it. “I want to be in the infrastructure. I want to be the brand, instead of just being the face,” she said.