When Carmen Kivisild relocated from Estonia to the US with $100K in investment to build Elnora AI, she knew equity would be essential for her founding team. She was determined to make every team member a true owner while delivering on their mission. But with team members split between the US and Estonia, she faced a challenge: how do you grant legitimate ownership across borders?
The answer turned out to be simpler than expected. By finding the right platform, Elnora transformed from having no employee equity structure to giving every team member across two continents equity ownership.
Elnora AI is pioneering a new approach to drug discovery acceleration. Their enabling technology helps researchers design and optimize biomedical lab protocols by learning from both successful experiments and negative data (information that traditionally gets discarded but holds valuable insights for advancing research).
Founded in 2024, Elnora AI operates with a small team distributed between Salt Lake City and Estonia—a setup that emerged after founder Carmen Kivisild secured $100K in investment, took a leap and relocated from Estonia to the US. With a founding team spanning two continents, the company faces the dual challenge of building an early-stage startup while managing the complexities of international team equity.
Before implementing Cake, Carmen had no clear way of granting options to employees. This wasn't just an administrative gap. It was a barrier to making distributed early employees legitimate co-owners.
"Before Cake, we didn't have a clear way to grant options to employees."
For Elnora AI, equity was about making her distributed founding team legitimate co-owners in a mission that requires years of sustained commitment. Early employees joining an early-stage biomedical startup need more than promises, they need real skin in the game. Without proper infrastructure, those ownership stakes remained theoretical.
Carmen recognized that spreadsheets couldn't provide the structure needed to grant equity. Distributed founding teams need legitimate, compliant ownership stakes that work regardless of geography.
Carmen's decision to implement Cake was driven by a critical requirement: the platform needed to support her distributed team with the same level of legitimacy and compliance.
Many equity management platforms focus exclusively on US-based companies but lack the flexibility to issue equity across borders.
"We chose Cake because it supports international teams, which is essential for us."
The implementation experience matched the platform's promise of simplicity. Within weeks, Elnora moved from having no option plan to a fully structured equity program that could scale with their growth.
Since implementing Cake, Elnora AI has achieved complete transformation in their equity structure:
The most significant outcome speaks volumes about Cake's impact:
"We went from having no option plan to giving equity to every employee."
This represented a fundamental shift in how Elnora operates. Achieving 100% equity coverage means every person who took the risk of joining an early-stage, cross-border startup now has legitimate skin in the game.
These aren't symbolic grants—they're meaningful ownership stakes that align each team member's success with the company's trajectory, regardless of which continent they call home.
By removing the barriers to equity distribution, Cake enabled Carmen to deliver on the ownership culture that aligns with the company's mission and makes early-stage risk worthwhile for founding team members.
Team members now have clear visibility into their equity stakes, creating the trust and alignment essential for a company tackling complex biomedical challenges.
"The feedback has been very positive—people feel trusted, invested, and excited about growing Elnora together."
The improved employee understanding of their equity has strengthened the team's connection to Elnora's long-term success. Further, it removes the administrative burden from managing equity, giving them more time to focus on their mission.
This structural foundation matters particularly for a company working in the biomedical space, where long development timelines make equity essential for retaining talent committed to seeing breakthroughs through to completion.
"Cake gave us the structure and trust to show that we are serious about making every Elnora team member a true owner while delivering on our mission."
For Carmen, Cake provided the legitimacy needed to play the long game—aligning everyone with years of sustained growth ahead.
Elnora AI's approach to equity reflects Carmen's vision for building a company where every team member feels invested in the mission to accelerate drug discovery.
"At Elnora, we see equity as a way to make everyone an owner in the company's mission. We use it to align the team with the long-term success of the company, not just short-term goals. It motivates our team by showing that their work directly contributes to the value they help create."
This philosophy recognizes that biomedical AI development requires sustained commitment and belief in long-term impact—qualities that emerge naturally when team members hold meaningful ownership stakes.
By removing the technical barriers to equity distribution, Cake enabled Elnora to focus on what matters: building a team united by ownership in their mission to accelerate life-saving drug development.
Elnora AI's journey from no option plan to universal team ownership demonstrates that the right equity management platform removes barriers between vision and execution. By choosing Cake, Carmen Kivisild transformed equity from an aspiration into a structural reality that strengthens team alignment and commitment.
For any globally distributed team building complex technology, Elnora's experience shows that sophisticated equity management doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. With the right platform, founders can focus on their mission while ensuring every team member shares in the value they help create.
In Elnora's case, that means a team of owners united in accelerating drug discovery—precisely the culture needed to tackle one of humanity's most important challenges.
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