The Ownership Equation
What do founders actually keep after they raise?
Equity gets talked about as a fundraising term, but ownership is more than a percentage on a cap table. It shapes control, future options, and what founders ultimately walk away with.
This session brings that to life through the eyes of Dominika and Elsie, founders of BYBI beauty who have been through the whole journey, from first raise to exit. Sharing the truths they wish they knew, alongside insights from our expert panel.
Women, Wealth & Capital is a series created to open up honest, practical conversations around money, funding, and ownership. It’s about giving founders the clarity and confidence to make strategic decisions, not reactive ones.
In this session, we’re looking at The Ownership Equation.
What this session is about:
Equity gets talked about as a fundraising term. But this session is about what it actually means in practice: how ownership changes as you raise, what your cap table really tells you, and how the terms you agree to can shape what you ultimately keep at exit.
With our expert panel, we'll walk through a practical example of a company raising from pre-seed through Seed, Series A and Series B before reaching an exit. At each stage, we’ll unpack what changes, what terms become relevant, and what founders need to understand before they sign.
We’ll cover:
Equity and dilution, and what you’re really giving away at each round
Cap tables: how to read one and what it tells you about control
Option pools, investor rights, board seats and founder vesting
Term sheet clauses founders should understand before signing
Anti-dilution, liquidation preferences and other terms that can affect what founders keep
How to think about ownership with the end in mind
This is not a technical finance lecture.
It’s a decision-making session.
We'll move between two things across the evening: the practical walkthrough of how ownership changes round by round, and the lived experience of a founder who has been through it.
Experts unpack the mechanics, our founder speaker brings the reality, and you leave able to make funding decisions from knowledge, not pressure.
Speakers :
Dominika Minarovic & Elsie Rutterford: Founders of BYBI Beauty (exited), rayro & @twotiredmums
Elsie & Dominika scaled BYBI Beauty to 3,000+ retail doors, raised £10m in funding and successfully exited the business in 2024. Now building rayro, armed with everything they learned the first time around and an audience of 40k following their journey across Instagram and TikTok.
At The Ownership Equation they'll share what they wish they'd learned sooner about dilution, the realities of ownership from first investment through to exit and how they are doing it differently this time round.
+ Expert Panel to be announced shortly!
Who this is for
Early-stage founders preparing to raise or thinking about future funding
Founders who want to understand dilution, cap tables and term sheets more clearly
Operators, angels and investors who want to better understand how ownership works in practice
Founders building with a long-term view, whether that’s a legacy business, a high-growth company, or a future exit.
Join us in London at the brilliant Forvis Mazar offices with our hosts Independent Women, for canapés, drinks and plenty of networking with the Women, Wealth & Capital community.
If you can't make the event please join our waitlist for future sessions: https://womenwealthcapital.femfinity.co.uk/