Hi! I am Rita. I’m a startup operator, which is a way of saying I help early-stage teams move on a target.

This has involved launching SaaS products into new markets, building three newsletters from zero (AI, defence, energy) and a number of other things that didn’t have a job title at the time.

What I love about startups is the particular bravery of it. Smart people making courageous bets, failure treated not as the opposite of progress but as a requirement for it.

What I also love, equally and separately, is art. Which sounds like another planet. I’d argue the bravery is the same; artists and founders are both making things that don’t exist yet, in full knowledge that most people won’t get it immediately. The difference is pace. Art moves slowly, institutionally, by committee. In 2021 I co-founded Corrente de Ar, a non-profit that exhibits emerging artists in Lisbon, on a bet that moving with more urgency might do the art world some good. So far, so interesting.

I’ve lived in several cities in the past few years, which I recommend. Shanghai even got me learning Mandarin.

Outside of work, I have a few current obsessions. Scroll down.