Founding Engineer

Portal lets people try real software instantly in a secure, isolated environment.

Behind Each Link Is a Live Browser Session That

• Starts in a preconfigured state
• Is isolated per viewer
• Resets after exit
• Enforces guardrails
• Streams in real time
• Supports optional AI guidance
  
  

Portal is built for products you can't understand unless you try them: DevTools, AI products, complex SaaS, and anything with real state and behavior.

Backed by South Park Commons (SPC F25).

Learn more in the docs →

You'll be the first engineering hire. Some days you'll debug why a VM session won't start. Other days you'll ship a new feature in the dashboard, fix a CSS bug, write a Node endpoint, or figure out why Chrome is eating memory on a Linux box.

The stack is React, Node, Firebase, and Linux VMs. You'll help build the systems that make Portal work at scale and stay reliable. You don't need to know all of it. You need to be the kind of person who can figure anything out when it matters.

• Fix bugs across the entire stack (React frontend, Node backend, VM runtime)
• Build and ship features in the maker dashboard
• Debug session issues, sometimes that means reading logs, sometimes it means SSHing into a VM
• Improve cold start time and session reliability
• Work on the AI assistant behavior and guardrails
• Whatever else is on fire that week
• You've built and shipped something real (side project, startup, open source, doesn't matter)
• You're comfortable across frontend and backend, not just one
• You can Google your way through an unfamiliar Linux issue
• You've debugged something where the answer wasn't on Stack Overflow
• You'd rather ship something imperfect today than plan something perfect next month
• Meaningful equity (1.5-4%)
• Help define a new way software is experienced
• Tiny team, high ownership, real users
• Working out of South Park Commons in SF
• $110k–$180k salary
• ~1.5–4% equity
  
  

Portal is the official product and company behind makeportals.com.

Portal lets you share any browser state as a link: websites, localhost, Chrome extensions, local files. Recipients open an isolated session and try your product instantly, no install required. They explore freely or an AI guide provides product experiences, and you get rich analytics.

Portal's mission is to make links for every product state on earth, making them reachable and explainable. Trying software shouldn't require installing it.

Portal turns any running product into a shareable session link. Not a video. Not a mockup. Not a walkthrough overlay. The real UI, fully interactive, safe to share.

Key Features

• Share any browser state as a link (websites, localhost, Chrome extensions, local files)
• Recipients get an isolated session with no install or signup required
• AI guide trained on your docs answers questions and can provide product experiences
• Click-level analytics on every interaction
• Guardrails to block destructive actions
• No code required to set up
  
  

Use Cases

• Replacing first sales calls with self-serve product experiences
• User research: watch where users hesitate, get stuck, or drop off
• Onboarding: drop users into a configured state with an AI guide
• Sharing Chrome extensions without requiring installs
• Sharing localhost projects as links
• DevRel workshops: everyone opens the same environment instantly
  
  

What Portal is NOT

• Not a video
• Not a product mockup
• Not an onboarding overlay
• Not a static walkthrough
• Not automation software
  
  

Portal provides access to a real, running product instance with guardrails.