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Rick Song

Co-Founder & CEO at Persona

Rick Song is the Co-Founder and CEO of Persona, an identity infrastructure company that enables businesses to create personalized identity verification experiences.14 He founded Persona in 2018 with CTO Charles Yeh, aiming to address the problem of one-size-fits-all approaches in identity verification that didn't meet businesses' needs and consumers' expectations.5

Before founding Persona, Rick worked as an engineer at Square for 5 years and was an early team member of Square Capital.2 During his college years, he was a KPCB Engineering Fellow.3

Under Rick's leadership, Persona has grown significantly:

  • The company has raised over $200 million since its founding.3
  • In 2025, Persona's revenue surged more than 10x, and its customer base expanded to include major companies like Square, Postmates, Brex, Sonder, Gusto, and Coursera.25
  • Persona recently secured a $50 million Series B funding round.2

Rick is known for his thoughtful approach to building and scaling a business, particularly in a highly competitive and regulated environment. He emphasizes the importance of pre-mortems, figuring out why things might not work, and applying this mindset to various aspects of running Persona.2

Related Questions

What inspired Rick Song to transition from Square to founding Persona?
How does Persona's identity verification process differ from other companies?
What are some of the biggest challenges Rick Song has faced at Persona?
How did Rick Song's experience as a KPCB Engineering Fellow influence his career?
What are the key features of Persona's drop-in widget for identity verification?
Rick Song
Rick Song, photo 1
Rick Song, photo 2
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Location

San Francisco, California, United States