Dr. Sheikha Ayesha bint Saud Al Qassimi joined roughly 50 women founders at the Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah on September 25 for The Wealth Room, an invitation-only gathering built around one of the more uncomfortable subjects in business: who actually owns the wealth a company creates.
The Wealth Room was created by Ellen Mannaert, founder of Era Of You, a community for women founders. The Dubai edition drew women from Dubai, Amsterdam, London and beyond, brought together to talk plainly about raising capital, equity, dilution, ownership structures, and the legal and financial frameworks that decide who keeps control of a business as it grows.
Why the conversation was the point
Mannaert said the value of the gathering wasn't inspiration, since the women in the room were already building companies. It was permission to ask the harder questions out loud.
"The panel discussions were essential. Not because anyone needed motivation to build. They're already building. What we needed was comfort - comfort with the real conversation," Mannaert said.
She described what that comfort should translate into in practice. "That means being comfortable asking about equity, understanding what you are giving up, understanding how to structure a company so wealth stays in your hands, and being willing to mentor the next woman and say: here's what I know, here's what you need to know, and here's how we open doors for each other."
