Founder Story: Farooq Malik & Charles Naut of Rain

Founded by Farooq Malik and Charles Naut, Rain taps into the growth of DAOs by offering corporate cards and expense management tools. Whether it is a six person DAO or a multibillion dollar protocol, Rain acts as the translation layer between legacy financial systems and Web3’s ecosystem.

Tell us about the concept behind Rain and your journey to get there.

Rain is building the native spend management tooling for web3 teams. We started working on a side project together in 2021 called SignandWire.com. The goal was to embed payment functionality into e-signature flows. We initially had some founders reach out to ask if we could support USDC as a funding mechanism for a signed investment document and we were intrigued by the opportunity to support something that allows near-instant settlement. We added support for USDC on Ethereum a couple of weeks later to SignandWire. Soon after, at the request of founders building on Solana, we added support for USDC on Solana. By working in the space and interviewing founders building Web3 companies, we were approached by founders of projects with considerable resources. Constant questions like "How can we pay for GitHub with crypto?" and "Do you have any ideas on the best way to pay for laptops?" We noticed this was a repetitive theme and realized that this whole space was relying on informal off-ramps and reimbursements to support a multi-billion dollar industry at the forefront of emerging technology.

How should teams think about capital efficiency as DAOs hold more and more assets in their treasury?

Capital efficiency for DAOs should be no different than other teams, companies, or projects. Capital is the lifeblood of a project and communities of developers should work to safeguard their capital and reduce the need to maintain multiple balances across blockchains and fiat accounts. Not only does this create reporting friction and reduce transparency, but this also adds costs to the DAO every time balances are converted, transferred, bridged, or spent. By reducing complexity, DAOs can reduce significant growing pains and operational hurdles.

What do you think is a common misconception in web3 payments?

One of the common misconceptions in Web3 payments is that everything is ready to go for mainstream adoption or that everyone is paying strangers in native tokens.  The reality is Web3 companies, whether they’re traditionally structured or decentralized, have considerable payment hurdles. A core example would be bridging the gap from today's payment networks to more futuristic payment networks, as well as bringing functionality to the merchants that supply these networks with items like laptops, airplane tickets, or SaaS products. At Rain we believe that Web3 rails provide a blueprint for lifting payments to a global standard by solving the structural limitations of the fiat-based settlement stack.

What keeps you up at night as a founder?

What keeps us up as founders is the fear that we’re not adequately serving the needs of this dynamic and ever-evolving community of builders in Web3. We’re laser focused on pushing the boundaries of what is possible in Web3 payments and how best to integrate the ethos of Web3, the unique needs of DAOs, and other digitally native teams into our products and the future of payments. The insomnia we experience is driven by the optimistic anxiety of knowing that exciting and new things are on the horizon, and smart, driven people will lead this industry there. We want to be there with them to support this industry.

What would you say to fellow entrepreneurs and builders in web3 getting started in this market? 

There is no shortage of jobs to be done in Web3. Every day offers new opportunities to improve what exists and start building things that have yet to become possible. The best part of the community is that builders and entrepreneurs are all on the same side, the side of innovation and discovery. Jump on in, the water is just fine.