Veriff’s CRO Philippe de Passorio: Revenue is a team sport

Philippe de Passorio leads the Revenue organization at Veriff, driving sales, account management, and go-to-market strategy across global markets. He brings decades of experience building and scaling high-performing revenue teams at companies including Adyen and Brex. Before joining Veriff, Philippe served as SVP, Sales, North America at Adyen, where he led a 110+ person function and drove double-digit year-over-year growth across enterprise and mid-market segments. He also established Adyen’s operations in France and Italy from the ground up, scaling both into profitable, full-scale commercial hubs. Learn more about Philippe’s journey and why he chose Veriff.

What drew you to Veriff at this moment in your journey? What made this the right opportunity, and the right time, for you?

What drew me to Veriff is the size and importance of the problem we are solving.

Digital trust is becoming one of the most important infrastructure layers of the internet. Every company now has to answer a simple but critical question: “Can I trust the person or business on the other side of this interaction?” That question matters for financial services, marketplaces, mobility, gaming, healthcare, AI platforms, and many other industries.

I spent more than ten years at Adyen helping companies rethink payments, commerce, and financial infrastructure. What I saw very clearly is that trust is no longer a side topic. It is becoming core to growth, risk management, compliance, and user experience.

Veriff has the ingredients to become a defining company in this category: strong technology, global coverage, deep product expertise, and a team with real ambition. The timing felt right because the market is also changing quickly. Fraud is becoming more sophisticated, regulations are tightening, and AI is creating new opportunities as well as risks. Companies need identity and trust partners that can help them move faster while staying safe.

That is why this opportunity felt so compelling. Veriff is operating in a category that will only become more strategic over the next decade.

What have been your first impressions of the Veriff team so far?

My first impression is that Veriff has a lot of talent, energy, and resilience.

The team is deeply committed to the mission, and there is a strong sense of ownership. People care about the product, the customers, and the long-term potential of the company. That matters a lot.

I also see a company that is ready for its next phase. Veriff has already built a strong foundation, but now the challenge is to bring more focus, discipline, and repeatability into the way we go to market. That is normal for a company moving from one stage of growth to the next.

What excites me is that people are open to that evolution. There is a willingness to learn, to challenge assumptions, and to raise the bar. That is a very strong starting point.

You’ve spent over a decade at Adyen, scaling its North American sales organization from the ground up across enterprise and mid-market. What did that journey teach you about building revenue in a category that isn’t yet fully understood by its buyers?

One of the biggest lessons is that when a category is not fully understood, you cannot simply sell a product. You have to educate the market.

At Adyen, many customers initially saw payments as a commodity. Over time, we helped them understand that payments could become a strategic advantage: higher authorization rates, better customer experience, global scalability, lower operational complexity, and better data.

That required patience, clarity, and discipline. You need to connect your technology to business outcomes. You need to show customers why the problem matters, how it affects their P&L, and how solving it well creates a competitive advantage.

The same is true in identity verification. Some companies still look at identity as a compliance checkbox or a cost center. But that is far too narrow. Done well, identity can improve conversion, reduce fraud, protect customers, unlock new markets, and create trust at scale.

The other lesson is that category creation requires focus. You cannot try to be everything to everyone. You need to know where you win, why you win, and which customers feel the pain most deeply. Then you build the organization, the product feedback loop, and the commercial motion around that.

Now at Veriff, where will you focus first to sharpen execution and drive impact? Are there areas where you think Veriff has been leaving value on the table, segments, geographies, or deal structures, that you’re keen to move on quickly?

My first focus is on clarity and execution.

We need to be very clear on our ideal customer profile, the segments where we have the strongest product-market fit, and the types of deals where Veriff can deliver the most value. From there, we need to build a more disciplined and repeatable revenue motion.

That means stronger qualification, better account prioritization, clearer forecasting, and tighter collaboration between Sales, AM/CS, Marketing, Product, Solutions, Legal, Compliance, and Operations.

I believe Veriff has significant untapped value in larger enterprise opportunities, especially where identity is not just a compliance requirement but a strategic part of the customer journey. We should focus on customers where we can prove measurable impact: better pass rates, lower fraud, faster onboarding, stronger compliance, and improved user experience.

Geographically, I believe we need to be intentional. Focus matters. We should prioritize markets where we have strong demand, strong product fit, and the ability to support customers at a high level. The US and Europe are obvious priorities, while we remain thoughtful about other regions with clear enterprise demand and repeatable opportunities.

The goal is not to chase every opportunity. The goal is to focus on the opportunities where Veriff can win, scale, and create long-term customer value.

You’ve operated across North America, Europe, and Asia, including France, Italy, Hong Kong, and the US. How much does geography factor into your thinking for Veriff’s growth, and where do you see the biggest untapped international opportunity?

Geography matters a lot, but not in isolation. What matters is the combination of market demand, regulatory complexity, customer pain, and Veriff’s ability to deliver differentiated value.

Identity is inherently global, but trust is also local. Regulations, documents, fraud patterns, user behavior, and customer expectations vary significantly from one market to another. A strong identity platform needs global scale, but it also needs local depth.

I see major opportunities in the US and Europe where we have strong Product Market Fit. The US has enormous potential because the market is large, innovation is fast, and many companies are dealing with fraud, compliance, and trust challenges at scale. Europe is also highly strategic because of regulatory complexity and the need for trusted digital interactions across many industries.

More broadly, the international opportunity for Veriff is to help global companies manage identity consistently across markets without losing local precision. That is a hard problem to solve, and it is exactly where a company like Veriff can create significant value.

Before Adyen, you founded a company and worked in emerging technologies such as augmented reality and digital media. How does that entrepreneurial and early-stage experience shape the way you approach a growth-stage company like Veriff?

Entrepreneurial experience teaches you to be close to the customer, move fast, and stay practical.

When you are building something early, you do not have the luxury of complexity. You need to understand the problem, test your assumptions, learn quickly, and focus on what creates real value. That mindset remains highly relevant in a growth-stage company.

At Veriff, we have strong technology and a strong foundation, but we need to keep an entrepreneurial mindset. We should stay close to the market, listen carefully to customers, and be honest about where we win and where we need to improve.

At the same time, growth-stage companies need more structure than early-stage companies. The key is to combine entrepreneurial speed with operational discipline. You want creativity, but you also need focus. You want ambition, but you also need repeatability. That balance is critical.

What defines a high-performing revenue organization in your view? What behaviors, rhythms, or principles matter most?

A high-performing revenue organization is built on focus, discipline, and customer evidence.

Focus means knowing where to spend time and, just as importantly, where not to spend time. Discipline means having strong operating rhythms: clear pipeline reviews, consistent qualification, accurate forecasting, strong account planning, and regular coaching. Customer evidence means decisions are based on what customers are actually saying, doing, and committing to, not on internal optimism.

The best revenue teams are also deeply cross-functional. Sales cannot win alone. Marketing, AM/CS, Product, Solutions, Legal, Compliance, and Operations all contribute to revenue. The strongest companies understand that revenue is a team sport.

Finally, high-performing teams have high standards. They prepare well, they know their customers, they understand the product, they challenge each other, and they execute with urgency. Talent matters, but behaviors and habits matter just as much.

And beyond the numbers, what would you want the team and the industry to say about what Veriff became under your watch on the revenue side?

I would like people to say that Veriff became one of the most trusted and respected companies in the identity and trust industry.

Of course, revenue growth matters. But how you grow also matters. I would want customers to say that Veriff helped them solve critical problems, not just buy a tool. I would want the team to say that we built a culture of excellence, focus, and ownership. And I would want the industry to see Veriff as a company that raised the standard for what identity verification can deliver.

The ambition is not only to sell more. The ambition is to help define the category and show that identity can be a growth enabler, not just a compliance requirement.

Looking ahead two to three years, what would success at Veriff look like to you?

Success would mean that Veriff has built a repeatable, predictable, and scalable revenue engine.

That means we are winning with the right customers, in the right markets, with strong margins and long-term partnerships. It means our teams are aligned, our forecasting is reliable, our customers are successful, and our product roadmap is strongly connected to market demand.

It also means that Veriff is recognized as a strategic partner for companies that care deeply about trust, safety, conversion, and compliance.

In two to three years, I would like Veriff to be seen not just as an identity verification provider, but as a core trust infrastructure company for the digital economy.

Fireside chat questions

What is your must-read book or must-listen-to podcast?

One book I often come back to is Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

The idea that some systems do not just resist shocks but actually become stronger from volatility is very relevant to company building, but also to people. In a fast-moving environment, you cannot expect perfect stability. Markets shift, customers evolve, competitors move, and technology changes quickly. The same is true in a career or in life: we all face pressure, setbacks, and uncertainty.

What matters is building an organization and a mindset that can learn from pressure, adapt quickly, and become better through challenge. That idea is important for Veriff. We operate in a complex and evolving category, and the companies and the people that will win are the ones that can turn uncertainty into an advantage.

What is the best advice that you have been given?

One of the best pieces of advice I have received is that “focus starts with saying no”.

It sounds simple, but it is very hard in practice. In business, there are always too many opportunities, too many ideas, and too many distractions. The ability to choose, prioritize, and stay disciplined is often what separates good companies from great ones.

Something you were told NOT to do, but you did it anyway, and no regrets?

Moving across countries and taking risks in unfamiliar markets.

At different moments in my career, I chose to leave comfortable environments and move into new geographies, new industries, or new stages of company growth. It was not always the safest or most obvious path, but it gave me perspective, resilience, and a much broader understanding of how to build teams and businesses across cultures.

No regrets. Those decisions shaped the way I lead today.