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About
Meet MayankHis journey, his mission, and how he got here.
The Ownership MapThe framework behind every programme he runs.
QuotesHis sharpest lines on leadership and ownership.
The Book
Who Really Owns Your Business?Know more →The advisory practice behind the training: governance, compliance and ownership, handled end to end.
Satyamaya & Partners → -
Training
FoundersPersonal liability, ownership realities, and what a resolution actually binds you to.
StartupsThe day-one decisions founders do not feel until month eighteen.
BoardsGovernance obligations and red flags that hold up under real scrutiny.
ComplianceFiling discipline that survives an audit, not just a checklist.
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Speaking
Keynote TopicsAccountability, governance, and the questions founders avoid.
Signature Talk“The Last Day Test”: the one question every founder should be able to answer.
Book Mayank to SpeakDirect enquiries for keynotes and executive sessions.
Why Book Mayank
Not theory. Real filings, real disputes, real founders who found out too late. Delivered with the energy of a room that does not want to be there and leaves wishing it had more time.
- Insights
An Original Framework by Mayank Vashishta
Ownership isn’t one thing. It’s five.
Five simple questions that tell you whether you actually own the business you built.
Layer 1
The Money
Who gets the cash and the sale proceeds?
This is the layer everyone understands, your slice of the profits and of the cheque when you sell. And it is the one with the most hidden traps. Two of them catch almost every founder.
Trap 1: The 50/50 handshake
You and your co-founder split it down the middle because it feels fair. It feels fair right up until the day you disagree, and then nobody can break the tie. The company simply freezes.
You disagree. Now what?
Nobody can break the tie. The company freezes. This is why you need a tie-breaker agreed on day one, while you still like each other.
Fair and workable are not the same thing. If you go 50/50, agree a tie-breaker on day one, a casting vote, a buy-out clause, a trusted advisor who decides. Do it while you still like each other.
Trap 2: Owning a lot and getting nothing
Here is the one that shocks people. Your percentage of the company is not the size of your cheque. When you take investment, investors usually get paid back first, before you see a rupee.
You sell the company for ₹40 crore. You own 60%. You get…
Your 60% didn’t matter. The deal terms decided who got paid.
Owning a big slice of the company is not the same as getting a big cheque. Read the preference terms.
Sixty percent of a company can pay you zero if the terms say the investor comes first. Before you sign any funding, ask one question in plain words: “If we sell for X, what do I personally walk away with?” Make them show you the maths.
How much of the company the founding team still holds
Rough market pattern. Every round you raise, your slice gets smaller, plan for it, don’t be shocked by it.
Layer 2
The Vote
Who controls the votes and the board?
Owning shares and controlling the company are two different things. You can be the biggest shareholder in the room and still not be the one calling the shots, because control is about votes and the board, not just the size of your slice.
What founders think: “I own 60%, so I’m in charge.”
What’s actually true
Same founder. Same 60%. Three completely different answers.
Investors are very good at this. They will often take a small slice of the company but negotiate the right to block big decisions, you cannot sell, cannot raise, cannot change direction without their yes. That is not a bad thing on its own. It becomes a problem when you do not realise you have given it away.
Layer 3
The Wheel
Who actually makes the call, day to day?
This is the steering wheel, who really decides things, both in the small daily calls and the big ones. And here is where founders get quietly removed from their own companies.
They owned plenty. They just did not control this layer.
Layer 4 · the heart of it
The Exposure
Who answers when it goes wrong?
This is the layer this whole principle is built around. Every other layer you can share, sell, or hand off. This one you cannot. When something goes wrong, the law does not come looking for “the company”, it comes looking for a person. And that person is usually you.
Filing the returns. Running the books. Doing the task.
You CAN hand this offWho the notice names. Who signs. Who’s on the hook.
This NEVER movesYou can hire someone to do the filings. You can hand the books to a team. That is delegating the work, and you should. But if the filings do not happen, the penalty notice still has your name on it. The task moved. The accountability did not.
Three things founders wrongly assume are ‘handled’
That is not a slogan. It is the law, and it is the whole reason this layer exists.
Layer 5
The Last Day
Who owns and runs it if you’re gone?
The final layer is the one nobody wants to think about: what happens to all of this if you step away, fall out with a partner, or are not around tomorrow. Two quiet traps here.
One: stepping back doesn’t erase your name
Long after you reduce your stake, you can still carry a founder’s responsibilities in the eyes of the law. The shadow follows you out the door.
Two: a nominee is not an heir
Founders often ‘nominate’ someone on their shares and assume that settles who inherits. It does not. A nominee just holds the shares safe, who actually owns them is decided by your will or by succession law. Get this wrong and you leave your family a dispute instead of a business.
The whole map in one test
The Last Day Test
You don’t need to memorise five layers. You need one honest exercise. Imagine you vanished tomorrow, and answer these five questions out loud. Real names, not job titles.
If every answer is the person you assumed, your map is aligned, and you genuinely own what you built. If even one answer surprises you, that is the gap. That is exactly the work he does with founders.
Want this map applied to your business?
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