Ola Persson graduated from the University of Växjö, Sweden, with a degree in marketing in 1987. During his initial work at a software company, he developed his language technology skills and formed his own company, WordFinder Software, in 1990. The main product, WordFinder, is a dictionary tool that complements other computer-assisted translation tools. In 1995 Ola also started Trados Scandinavia, a franchisee to Trados GmbH. He was operating both WordFinder Software and Trados Scandinavia between 1995-2007.