Needed: Portuguese Co-founder (Growth & B2B Sales) — 6k users, emigration job platform

I'm building Emigra.pt (& emprego.emigra.pt) — a niche job platform for Portuguese speakers looking for work abroad (Germany, Switzerland, UK, Canada, UAE, etc.). Think less LinkedIn, more "the place Portuguese emigrants actually start their job search."

Where things stand:

6,000+ registered job seekers from programatic SEO experiments.
Live product: search by role + country, job listings, job detail pages, lead capture
Interactive world map for picking countries (with regional zoom — useful for smaller countries like Ireland, Switzerland, etc.)
Lean stack: static front-end, Netlify functions, Airtable as CMS
I built the early product and business, but I don't have bandwidth to focus on this full-time anymore.

What I need: A Portuguese co-founder (native or fluent — this matters for the market, partnerships, and sales conversations) who owns growth and B2B sales.

You should be the kind of person who looks at 6k registered job seekers with clear emigration intent and thinks "employers and recruiters will pay for this audience." eg: A few of the job seekers have heavy-machinery operation education/certificates, this can be worth $1000+ for someone in Germany that needs to move fast.

Ideal background (don't need all of it):

B2B sales / business development
Recruitment, staffing, or HR tech
Marketplace or community-led growth
Comfortable selling to SMBs (employers, agencies) — not just running ads
Business model: B2B — employers and recruitment partners pay for listings, visibility, or qualified leads. Model still being shaped; you'll have real input.

How we'd work together:

I'm not looking for an employee. I'm looking for a co-founder with ownership mentality.
2-week trial first — we work on something concrete together (e.g. outbound to employers, pricing, landing a pilot). No vague "let's chat for months."
If it's a fit → we talk equity and roles properly.
If it's not → we say so quickly. I won't string you along.
Remote is fine, but you must be Portuguese (or as close as it gets — lived abroad long-term, deep ties to the community, etc.)
Not looking for: a technical co-founder — product side is covered for now.

Open to angels/grants down the line, but the near-term focus is traction and revenue.

If you're interested, reply with:

Why this problem resonates with you (personal emigration story, recruitment experience, etc.)
One example of something you sold or grew
What you'd do in the first 90 days — 3 concrete bullets
Happy to share the product, user numbers, and current pipeline in a call.

Compensation & Equity

Compensation is flexible and depends on the person, their experience, and how involved they want to be.

This is a co-founder search, not a commission-only sales role, but I understand that people have bills to pay. I'm open to structuring compensation in different ways, including a mix of cash, commission, and equity.

For example, we could agree on higher cash compensation or commissions in exchange for lower equity, or lower cash compensation in exchange for greater ownership. If you're focused on sales, we could also explore structures where you keep a significant share (or even 100%) of revenue you generate for an initial period while helping build the sales engine.

The goal is to find a structure that feels fair to both sides. The project has been in development for several years already, so any equity arrangement should reflect both the work already invested and the value created going forward.

About Me

I'm a Portuguese entrepreneur, product leader, and former CTO who has spent most of my adult life living abroad, including in Germany and Norway.

Over the last 15+ years I've built software products, startups, and teams—from early-stage ventures to larger international companies. These days my focus is on building useful products and businesses rather than just technology.

I started Emigra.pt because I know first-hand what it's like to leave Portugal and search for opportunities abroad. My goal is to build the platform Portuguese emigrants think of first when looking for work outside Portugal.