Rick Song is the Co-Founder and CEO of Persona, the identity verification platform trusted by OpenAI, Instacart, LinkedIn, and 3,000+ others. A self-described reluctant founder, he left Square in 2018 after five years working on fraud and identity products, convinced there was a better way to build identity infrastructure. By 2025, Persona had completed 300+ million verifications, crossed $100M ARR, raised a $200M Series D at a $2B valuation, and was named a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for Identity Verification for the second consecutive year.
Brett Berson is a Partner at First Round Capital, the early-stage venture firm behind Uber, Square, and Notion. Starting as a college intern in 2008, he spent over 15 years rising through the ranks to co-lead the firm. He is the architect behind the First Round Review (the firm's widely-read editorial publication), the In Depth podcast, and Angel Track — a program that trains operators to become better angel investors. Named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital in 2015, Berson holds NYU degrees in economics and film, and credits studying filmmaking with teaching him to notice the thousands of micro-decisions that compound into company-defining outcomes. His key portfolio bets include Clay, Persona, and Stedi.