# Daniele Perito

> Daniele Perito is an Italian computer-security researcher turned company builder. After helping launch Cash App and co-founding wholesale marketplace Faire, he returned to cybersecurity as co-founder and executive chairman of depthfirst, an applied AI lab building systems to find, verify and fix software vulnerabilities.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Executive Chairman at depthfirst
- **Organizations:** depthfirst, Faire, Cash App, Square, University of California, Berkeley, INRIA, Sapienza University of Rome, Y Combinator
- **From:** Cassino, Italy
- **Nationality:** Italian
- **Education:** Postdoctoral research in computer security, University of California, Berkeley, PhD in Computer Science, INRIA Rhône-Alpes / University of Grenoble, MSc in Computer and Network Security, with honors, Sapienza University of Rome, Exchange master's student, University of Birmingham, BSc in Computer Science, with honors, Sapienza University of Rome
- **Known for:** Co-founded Faire, a global wholesale marketplace that reached a reported $12 billion valuation in 2021., Helped launch Cash App as a founding team member and led security and anti-fraud work., Co-founded depthfirst, which announced $120 million in total funding by March 2026.

## Career timeline

- **2008-2011** — Completed doctoral research at INRIA Rhône-Alpes / University of Grenoble on computer security.
- **2009** — Worked as a research intern at the University of California, Irvine with Gene Tsudik.
- **2010** — Worked as a research intern at Stanford University with John Mitchell.
- **2010-2011** — Conducted postdoctoral computer-security research at UC Berkeley.
- **2012-2017** — Joined Square and became a founding team member at Cash App, leading security, fraud prevention and risk work.
- **2015-2016** — Began testing startup ideas with future Faire co-founders Max Rhodes and Marcelo Cortes.
- **2017** — Co-founded Faire and joined Y Combinator's Winter 2017 batch.
- **2017-2023** — Served as Faire's co-founder and Chief Data Officer, helping build its data, analytics and risk foundations.
- **2023-present** — Continued at Faire as co-founder and board member.
- **2024-present** — Co-founded depthfirst with Qasim Mithani and Andrea Michi; serves as Executive Chairman.
- **2026** — depthfirst emerged from stealth with a $40 million Series A and announced an $80 million Series B less than 90 days later.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Faire, a global wholesale marketplace that reached a reported $12 billion valuation in 2021.
- Helped launch Cash App as a founding team member and led security and anti-fraud work.
- Co-founded depthfirst, which announced $120 million in total funding by March 2026.
- Published peer-reviewed security and privacy research on username traceability, web-search privacy, password cracking and embedded-device trust.
- Earned undergraduate and master's degrees with honors from Sapienza University of Rome and a PhD in computer science.
- Helped Faire identify and communicate its product-market fit, followed by expansion to 15 markets and reported annual sales above $1 billion within five years of launch.

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Published 'Cybersecurity's ChatGPT Moment,' explaining depthfirst's founding thesis that large language models would discover zero-day vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed and scale.
- **2026-03** — depthfirst announced an $80 million Series B led by Meritech Capital, bringing total capital raised to $120 million, and introduced its dfs-mini1 specialized security model.
- **2026-01** — Appeared on the Uncapped podcast with Jack Altman to discuss Faire, Cash App, AI-driven attacks and depthfirst's approach to software security.
- **2026-01** — depthfirst publicly emerged from stealth with $40 million in Series A funding led by Accel.

## Links

- Website: https://depthfirst.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieleperito

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/daniele-perito
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-26