All roles

GTM

Founding Business Development Lead, Phota API

  • San Jose, United States
  • Hybrid
  • Full-time
Apply for this role
Phota is building the personalization layer for visual GenAI. We started with identity preservation for image editing and generation: letting developers create and edit images of real people while keeping them unmistakably recognizable.

We’re looking for a Founding BD Lead to help identify, develop, and close the highest-leverage partnerships and customers for Phota API, turning early market pull into durable platform relationships

What you’ll do


  • Build and own Phota API’s early business development motion across AI startups, creative platforms, avatar/video companies, developer platforms, and visual AI products.
  • Identify the most promising verticals where identity preservation is mission-critical, including AI headshots, avatars, personalized video, marketing assets, creative tooling, and product photography.
  • Source, develop, and close high-leverage design partners, platform partners, and production API customers.
  • Run founder-style customer development to understand partner workflows, current technical pain points, buying dynamics, and expansion opportunities.
  • Work closely with founders to shape partner strategy, ICP, pricing, packaging, launch plans, and strategic narratives.
  • Help build repeatable BD assets, including partner pitches, vertical-specific narratives, demo flows, case studies, integration examples, and launch materials.


Who you are


  • You have experience in business development, strategic partnerships, API/platform sales, developer platforms, AI infrastructure, cloud, creative tools, or applied AI products.
  • You are strong at identifying which relationships matter and turning ambiguous market interest into concrete commercial opportunities.
  • You can speak credibly with founders, product leaders, ML engineers, platform teams, and business stakeholders.
  • You are technical enough to understand API workflows, model integrations, inference, evaluation, developer experience, and production constraints.
  • You are commercially sharp and can distinguish high-signal customers from interesting but low-value conversations.
  • You are excellent at relationship-building, follow-through, and creating momentum across multiple stakeholders.


Ideal background


  • Experience in AI infrastructure, developer platforms, API sales, model platforms, cloud infrastructure, or technical partnerships.
  • Experience selling to or partnering with startups, developers, product teams, or technical founders.
  • Track record of turning early customer conversations into revenue, references, product direction, or ecosystem momentum.
  • Bonus: experience with ecosystems like fal, Replicate, Hugging Face, Modal, RunPod, Together, Fireworks, DigitalOcean, AWS, or similar platforms.
  • Bonus: experience with developer relations, product-led growth, marketplace partnerships, or founder-led sales.


Why join


  • Join at the moment when Phota API is live, working, and already seeing real market pull.
  • Help define a new category: the personalization layer for visual GenAI.
  • Work directly with the founders on company-defining BD, partnership, and market strategy.
  • Own the early BD motion before the playbook exists, from strategic partner mapping to customer development, integrations, launches, and expansion.