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From reluctant founder to $2B valuation: The story of Persona | Rick Song (Co-founder and CEO)
Manage episode 481373466 series 2815222
Rick Song is the co-founder and CEO of Persona, the identity verification platform used by some of the world’s largest companies. Before starting Persona, Rick worked on identity fraud and risk products at Square, which laid the groundwork for what would become Persona’s highly technical, horizontal platform. Since founding the company, Rick has scaled Persona into a category-defining leader, recently raising a $200M Series D at a $2B valuation.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
- How Rick’s skepticism shaped Persona’s early strategy
- What it takes to scale a true platform company
- Successful execution in hypercompetitive markets
- What Rick’s learned from his co-founder, Charles Yeh
- and much more…
Referenced:
- Accenture: accenture.com
- Anthropic: anthropic.com
- Braze: braze.com
- Bridgewater Associates: bridgewater.com
- Charles Yeh: linkedin.com/in/charlesyeh/
- Christie Kim: linkedin.com/in/christiekimck/
- Clay: clay.com
- Kareem Amin: linkedin.com/in/kareemamin/
- MIT: mit.edu
- Newfront: newfront.com
- Palantir: palantir.com/
- Persona: withpersona.com
- Rippling: rippling.com
- Scale AI: scale.com
- Snowflake: snowflake.com
- Square: squareup.com
- Y Combinator: ycombinator.com
- Zachary Van Zant: linkedin.com/in/zacharyv/
Where to find Rick:
Where to find Brett:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
Where to find First Round Capital:
- Website: https://firstround.com/
- First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
- This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
Timestamps:
(0:05) Life before Persona
(2:11) The push from Charles
(3:09) Early reluctance and low expectations
(9:50) Winning the first $50 customer
(13:08)“Invalidating” Persona
(16:43) How Persona found their edge
(19:35) Transitioning from MVP to platform
(24:18) Turning down a $5K deal on principle
(26:47) Generalizing bespoke solutions
(28:28) Finding product-market fit
(33:51) Founder-led sales and consultative approach
(39:30) Building a culture of reactivity
(45:47) Landing the first enterprise customers
(51:34) Silicon Valley’s obsession with frameworks
(58:17) Developing first principles thinking
(1:00:24) Stay competitor-informed
148 episodes
Manage episode 481373466 series 2815222
Rick Song is the co-founder and CEO of Persona, the identity verification platform used by some of the world’s largest companies. Before starting Persona, Rick worked on identity fraud and risk products at Square, which laid the groundwork for what would become Persona’s highly technical, horizontal platform. Since founding the company, Rick has scaled Persona into a category-defining leader, recently raising a $200M Series D at a $2B valuation.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
- How Rick’s skepticism shaped Persona’s early strategy
- What it takes to scale a true platform company
- Successful execution in hypercompetitive markets
- What Rick’s learned from his co-founder, Charles Yeh
- and much more…
Referenced:
- Accenture: accenture.com
- Anthropic: anthropic.com
- Braze: braze.com
- Bridgewater Associates: bridgewater.com
- Charles Yeh: linkedin.com/in/charlesyeh/
- Christie Kim: linkedin.com/in/christiekimck/
- Clay: clay.com
- Kareem Amin: linkedin.com/in/kareemamin/
- MIT: mit.edu
- Newfront: newfront.com
- Palantir: palantir.com/
- Persona: withpersona.com
- Rippling: rippling.com
- Scale AI: scale.com
- Snowflake: snowflake.com
- Square: squareup.com
- Y Combinator: ycombinator.com
- Zachary Van Zant: linkedin.com/in/zacharyv/
Where to find Rick:
Where to find Brett:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
Where to find First Round Capital:
- Website: https://firstround.com/
- First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
- This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
Timestamps:
(0:05) Life before Persona
(2:11) The push from Charles
(3:09) Early reluctance and low expectations
(9:50) Winning the first $50 customer
(13:08)“Invalidating” Persona
(16:43) How Persona found their edge
(19:35) Transitioning from MVP to platform
(24:18) Turning down a $5K deal on principle
(26:47) Generalizing bespoke solutions
(28:28) Finding product-market fit
(33:51) Founder-led sales and consultative approach
(39:30) Building a culture of reactivity
(45:47) Landing the first enterprise customers
(51:34) Silicon Valley’s obsession with frameworks
(58:17) Developing first principles thinking
(1:00:24) Stay competitor-informed
148 episodes
All episodes
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