Founding Cultural Partnerships Lead (Europe)

About Portal

Portal is a platform for cultural programs and participation.

We believe people don't simply attend isolated events. They build relationships with the organizers, institutions, and communities that shape the cultural life of their cities. Portal exists to strengthen those relationships.

Portal is built for galleries, venues, collectives, cultural producers, and independent cultural spaces and organizations shaping the life of their cities. We're looking for someone to help us bring Portal to those communities, city by city.

The Role

As our Founding Cultural Partnerships Lead, you'll lead Portal's early go-to-market efforts by building trusted relationships with the organizers shaping cultural life in our launch cities.

You'll become Portal's first ambassador, representing Portal within the communities we're building for and bringing invaluable feedback back to the founders.

You'll play a central role in defining not only who joins Portal first, but how we enter new cities and establish trust within their cultural communities.

What You'll Do

• Lead Portal's early go-to-market strategy across our launch cities.
• Research and map each city's cultural ecosystem, identifying the galleries, museums, architecture organizations, publishers, independent venues, festivals, collectives, and other organizers shaping local cultural life.
• Build and maintain a living pipeline of prospective partners, tracking relationships, conversations, introductions, and next steps.
• Conduct thoughtful outreach and personally invite organizers to join Portal.
• Guide organizers through onboarding and become their primary point of contact.
• Cultivate long-term relationships with organizers and community leaders.
• Attend exhibitions, talks, screenings, openings, performances, and other cultural events to deepen your understanding of local communities.
• Gather qualitative product feedback and translate organizer needs into actionable insights for the product team.
• Collaborate on social media, editorial features, organizer interviews, and city guides.
• Help refine Portal's expansion strategy as we launch in additional cities.

We're Looking For Someone Who

• Has exceptional taste and a genuine curiosity about contemporary culture.
• Naturally knows, or enjoys discovering, the organizers, institutions, and independent spaces that make a city culturally interesting.
• Builds relationships with warmth, professionalism, and authenticity.
• Is organized and comfortable managing long-term relationships across many organizations.
• Enjoys research and has strong instincts for recognizing emerging cultural scenes and influential organizers.
• Writes and communicates clearly and thoughtfully.
• Is excited by early-stage startups and enjoys helping shape strategy, not just executing it.
• Is comfortable working independently and taking ownership.

Qualifications

Rather than years of experience or a specific degree, we're looking for someone with curiosity, good judgment, cultural fluency, and the ability to build trust.

You might have worked in a museum, gallery, cultural foundation, architecture office, publication, startup, or creative organization. Or you may simply be deeply embedded in your city's cultural scene.

We're much more interested in how you think and the relationships you can build than where you've worked.

• Fluent in English.
• Professional proficiency in at least one additional European language, preferably Italian or French.
• Based in (or willing to relocate to) one of our initial launch cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Milan, or Paris.
• EU national or Schengen area visa holder preferred, to enable seamless travel across our European launch cities.
• Willing to travel occasionally between launch cities.

Compensation

We're committed to paying fairly for this role and offering meaningful ownership through equity. Salary ranges by city:

• Meaningful early-stage equity (typically 0.25–0.75%, depending on experience and scope).
• A travel budget to visit launch cities, attend cultural events, and meet with organizers.
• Flexible, remote-friendly working arrangements.
• The opportunity to help define Portal from its earliest days.

What Success Looks Like After One Year

• You've built trusted relationships with many of the organizers shaping cultural life in one or more of our launch cities.
• Portal has become a familiar and respected presence within those cultural communities.
• You've developed and maintained a thoughtful pipeline of organizer relationships, helping us understand who matters in each city and why.
• You've onboarded an outstanding group of early organizers who genuinely believe in Portal's mission.
• Your conversations with organizers have directly influenced product decisions and helped refine our go-to-market strategy.
• You've helped lay the foundation for Portal's expansion into future cities.

Our Hiring Philosophy

We're intentionally not asking for a certain number of years of experience or a particular degree.

We're looking for someone with excellent judgment, curiosity, empathy, and taste.

You might be at the beginning of your career or already have several years of experience. You might come from a gallery, museum, architecture office, cultural foundation, startup, publication, festival, or somewhere entirely different.

What matters most is that you're genuinely interested in cultural life, build relationships naturally, communicate exceptionally well, and are excited to help shape a company from the very beginning.

If that sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you.